Sports Blog 10/04/2017: Premier League Preview – Crystal Palace vs Arsenal, Monday 10th April 2017

Can Arsenal keep up their top 4 push with a win over Crystal Palace, at 8pm on Sky Sports 1?

After a frightful February and a miserable March things appear to be picking up for the Gunners. A 2-2 draw against Manchester City, with the London club twice coming from behind, was followed by a confident 3-0 victory over West Ham, a result Arsene Wenger will hope has blown the side’s remaining cobwebs away.

That now leaves Arsenal in 6th place, 3 points behind Man United in 6th and 7 points adrift of Man City in 5th. However, and it’s a pretty big however, the Gunners have played only 29 league games this season to United’s 30 and City’s 31. That means they are still just about in the running for one of the Champions League places, especially since they host Jose Mourinho’s in a month’s time.



While much of the attention is rightly focused at the moment on Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, with the potentially departing players at Super Mega PGMs of 35-41 and 14-18 respectively, it’s been Theo Walcott who has arguably most impressed of late. The England international got the first equaliser against City, and the 2nd against the Hammers, taking his season-tally to 19 goals in all competitions, just 3 behind his Chilean teammate; he heads to Selhurst Park with a Super Mega PGM of 27-32.

For a side sitting in 16th place, Palace have looked pretty good of late. Before losing to Southampton last Wednesday they had won 4 matches in a row (including a victory against Chelsea), moving them further towards safety for another season. That run marked a rather abrupt shift in form, coming after 8 losses in 10 games between the 14th December and 11th February.

Frustratingly for Big Same, Palace may soon find themselves in danger once again. Not only are they in the middle of an acute injury crisis, with up to 11 players missing on Monday night, but they face a gruelling end to the season. After the visit from Arsenal they play Leicester, Liverpool, Tottenham, City and United (with a Burnley/Hull buffer either side of their first trip to Manchester). That’s a terrifying run in for a side only 3 points above the relegation zone (admittedly one with 2 games in hand), and may test Allardyce’s record of never having a side kicked out of the top flight.

Wenger has never lost to Palace, and he won’t want to start now, with Spreadex offering an Arsenal/Crystal Palace (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 0.75-0.95 alongside a Total Goals spread of 3.05-3.25.