Arsenal know their quality, and they know that they have it within them to beat Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon and keep the hype train moving forward.
The Premier League pace-setters just feel a bit special this year, don’t they? So balanced, so graceful, so dangerous. Defensively, Mikel Arteta’s Gunners are a force to be reckoned with, an unbreakable wall, conceding so few chances.
Palace are an entertaining side, though, and they know how to score a goal. Though Oliver Glasner’s Eagles haven’t scored an overload of goals so far this season, they have created more xG (expected goals) than any other side in the Premier League.
Crystal Palace
12
17.1
Man United
15
16.1
Liverpool
16
15.7
Man City
17
14.4
Arsenal
15
13.6
Expected Goals (xG) is a metric designed to measure the probability of a shot resulting in a goal.
The Emirates will expect three points, nonetheless. However, injuries, ever the bane of Arteta’s progress, could potentially knock the backline out of kilter.
Arsenal team news
The big concern. Gabriel Magalhaes faces a fight to be fit for the weekend clash, having left the pitch with a concern as Arsenal thrashed Atletico Madrid 4-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday night. The Brazilian centre-back scored one and assisted another.
Should Gabriel be sidelined, the likes of Piero Hincapie and Cristhian Mosquera will be ready to dovetail into an iron-clad defensive line and stave off the Palace threat.
Much has been made of Arsenal’s attacking quality this season. ‘Boring’ is what Arteta’s frontline have been called. This is nonsense, and the emphatic win over Atletico emphasises the deadly array of talent the manager has at his disposal.
In particular, this could be a big match for Bukayo Saka, who has not yet hit his prolific stride this season, three goals from nine matches in all competitions, but remains the focal point for his side, creating 2.3 chances and winning 6.3 duels per Premier League game, as per Sofascore.
However, the England international can’t do it alone. Viktor Gyokeres must carry his continental form back onto the domestic scene, while Gabriel Martinelli will fancy his chances of kicking on after coolly converting in midweek.
But Martinelli may not start this one, with another Thierry Henry-esque Arsenal talent gunning for his place.
Arteta must unleash Arsenal's new Thierry Henry
Henry is one of the greatest players in Premier League history, and possibly the finest to ever wear an Arsenal shirt. Saka could retire with a similar reputation in north London, based on the 23-year-old’s early-career exploits, but there’s another who could start to perform with shades of the long-retired Frenchman.
And that starts this weekend, against Crystal Palace.
For Eberechi Eze, it’s a big one. The silky forward takes on the club who herald him as a hero, with Arsenal having signed the Three Lions star from Crystal Palace for £67m this summer, completing their frontline.
Aged 27, Eze is one of the finest wingers in the country, effortlessly good on the ball. His dribbling ability is a thing to behold, and he is a talented playmaker besides.
He is not, it’s worth stressing, the same kind of player as Henry, whose goalscoring prowess was simply incredible, far beyond the grasp of all but a select few Premier League players across the past three decades.
But there are similarities to be pulled. In 1999, Henry joined the London club from Juventus in a club-record deal. He was a World Cup winner, linking up with compatriots Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit.
Highly regarded, it took Henry a while to find his feet in front of goal. Indeed, he went seven matches without a maiden strike in England’s top flight. In spite of this, he ended the campaign with 26 goals and 12 assists across all competitions, 17 goals in the Premier League.
And it’s not like Eze doesn’t know how to score. Last season, for Palace, he posted 14 goals and 11 assists across all competitions, proving the difference as Oliver Glasner’s project took off the ground in the closing months.
Moreover, his talismanic performances for Palace last year, notching the winner against Manchester City in the FA Cup final, showcase his big-game aura, something Henry had in bucketloads during his time at the Emirates.
Eze loves Crystal Palace dearly, but that will not stop him from striking against the Selhurst Park side, and Arteta might want to capture that potential on Sunday afternoon.
Eze might not have quite the same attacking repertoire as Henry, but he’s a fleet-footed, show-stopping wide forward, with analyst Ben Mattinson going as far as to hail him as a “superstar”.
But, there’s no denying he needs to start playing a little more prolifically, with just one goal and three assists to his name across all competitions in an Arsenal shirt. Eze has played 12 times under Arteta’s wing.
Perhaps he will look to take a leaf from Henry’s book in that regard, and marry his exceptional physical and technical qualities with a sharpness in the final third.
It will come. Eze’s level of talent is unquestionable, and he has proven across a number of years his quality and ability to provide clinical results in the Premier League.
And what better way to kick that off than against his former club, who herald him as a hero but may be forced to taste their legend’s ability as Arteta and Arsenal look to take another stride toward that elusive Premier League trophy.
