Preview: Arsenal v Crystal Palace

We look to reach the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup with Wednesday’s 7.30pm kick-off against Crystal Palace at Emirates Stadium.

Focused on competing for our first League Cup title since 1993, we have so far beaten Bolton Wanderers 5-1 and Preston North End 3-0 in the competition.

Victory over Palace would see us meet one of Newcastle United, Brentford, Southampton, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur or Manchester United in the semis.

PATIENCE PAYING OFF

Oliver Glasner’s side are now five games unbeaten in all competitions and have lost just one of their last nine matches.

The Eagles got off to a slow start in the Premier League this season, losing to Brentford and West Ham United before three draws in a row with Chelsea, Leicester City and Manchester United.

Further defeats against Everton, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest followed, but that all changed off the back of a 1-0 win at home to Tottenham.

Since then, they’ve taken 10 points from seven league matches, including wins over Ipswich Town and Brighton & Hove Albion as well as a 2-2 draw with Manchester City.

In the Carabao Cup, Palace cruised to a 4-0 win over Norwich City in the second round at Selhurst Park, and won 2-1 away to Aston Villa in the round of 16.

WHAT THE MANAGERS SAY

Arteta: “It will be very tough – when you look at the last results and the approach that they have, the quality of the individuals that they have, how they are coached as well. It’s always really tough, it’s another layer of difficulty as well when you play a team twice in four days, so we have prepared for that.

"It’s what you’re able to do to teams sometimes that they have to do certain things in relation to the game and the game scenario. The scoreline obviously has a big input to that. We will face one game or another."

Glasner: “I’m pretty sure Eddie [Nketiah] will have minutes in his old stadium. 

"I don’t tell anybody who will start tomorrow! We have three outstanding goalkeepers. Dean [Henderson] is doing really well, Matt [Turner] is a fantastic guy and had a great performance at Villa, and Remi Matthews as well. It’s a very good goalkeepers group. Whoever plays has our confidence and will be a good goalkeeper for us.”

TEAM NEWS

There are no fresh injury concerns from our point of view, with the only absentees remaining Riccardo Calafiori (groin), Oleksandr Zinchenko (knock), Ben White (knee), and Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee).

For Palace, Daniel Munoz is serving a suspension after he was shown his fifth yellow card of the season in Sunday’s win over Brighton. Joel Ward (calf), Franco Umeh-Chibueze (hamstring), Adam Wharton (groin), Matheus França de Oliveira (groin), and Chadi Riad Dnanou (lack of match fitness) are also expected to be unavailable.

In his pre-match press conference, Oliver Glasner reported that they will make a late decision on Eberechi Eze, after "he got a hit on the top of his foot and it’s swollen."

TALKING TACTICS

Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme: Crystal Palace deploy a very settled 3-4-2-1 formation under Oliver Glasner.

On the ball the astute Austrian pushes both wingbacks high and wide as a matter of course, forming a five-man attack, but when possession is lost, the Eagles quickly contract into a 5-4-1.

Long passes from back to front are often encouraged by the Palace head coach, who likes to use target man Jean-Phillipe Mateta as an outlet. In recent weeks he has been terrific at holding the ball up for supporting runners, with twin No.10s Eberechi Eze and Ismaila Sarr often quite elusive in those half-space pockets.

Making sure those three do not combine in close quarters from direct attacks is important for us in this cup tie.

FACTS AND STATS

17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri has scored three goals in two League Cup matches for us this season, scoring with three of his four shots on target. He’s only misplaced three out of 84 passes in the competition (96.4% accuracy), the second-best pass accuracy of any midfielder in the competition this season to attempt 65+ passes.

Since beating us 3-0 in April 2022, Crystal Palace have lost their last four games against us by an aggregate score of 12-1, with all these meetings coming in the Premier League.

We were knocked out of the League Cup by Crystal Palace in a fourth round replay in 1970/71 but eliminated them 5-1 on aggregate in the 1992/93 semi-final before going on to lift the trophy that season.

MATCH OFFICIALS

Andrew Madley has been appointed to officiate Wednesday’s match. It will be the first time he’s taken charge of a game at Emirates Stadium since a 3-0 defeat at home to Brighton in May 2023.

VAR will not be in use for this fixture.

Referee: Andrew Madley
Assistants: Nick Hopton and Craig Taylor
Fourth official: John Busby

LAST TIME WE MET

It was a resounding victory in the Premier League on our previous meeting with Crystal Palace as we put five past the Eagles, who were then managed by Roy Hodgson, without reply.

Gabriel’s brace had us 2-0 up at half-time, before a goal from Leandro Trossard and another two from Gabriel Martinelli late on put the game to bed.

It was our biggest win against Palace since a 7-0 victory in the FA Cup on January 27, 1934.

LIVE COVERAGE

Wednesday’s game will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. For non-UK supporters, find out how you can watch the action live below.

You can build-up to the game on Arsenal.com and the official app with Live From N5 at 6.45pm, before tuning in for live kick-by-kick commentary from Dan Roebuck and Jeremie Aliadiere at 7.30pm.

Timbsy and Jeremie are in the My Arsenal Rewards box to build up to the match and we’ll bring you everything you may have missed on social media this past week.

Frimmy will be out and about with our Question of the Day and there will be a festive challenge as Jeremie tries to work out Who’s the Arsenal Santa?

We will also give out our Live from N5 End of Year Awards for 2024 and our studio audience will be challenged with a round of What Happens Next?