Crystal Palace vs Arsenal

The 2022/23 Premier League campaign opener pitches another London derby, as Crystal Palace welcome Arsenal to Selhurst Park on Friday night. Crystal Palace have grown in stature under Patrick Vieira and finished 12^th in the Premier League last term, as well as reach9inf the semifinals of the FA Cup. Now expectations and optimism is high around Selhurst Park under the former Arsenal captain going into the new season. The Eagles have had less successful pre-season compared to their visitors, but head into the match of back-to-back victories over Queens Park Rangers and Montpellier. Their only defeats though came against Liverpool and Manchester United. Opening the season at home is what the Eagles would have been wishing for as they ended last campaign well at home, going unbeaten in the last six and remarkably managing to keep clean sheets in each of their last five with matches against Arsenal, Man United and Man City featuring in the list. Meanwhile Arsenal have also began to show their capabilities under their former captain Mikel Arteta, managing to finish fifth last season in his second full-season as the Arsenal boss. It was a significant improvement as they had previous finished eight, although they missed out on the Champions League again. Going into the new season, the Gunners have shown signs that they will be a force to be reckoned with basing on their pre-season, which was a real statement of what they want to do in the new season. Mikel’s side won all their five pre-season friendlies with Everton, Chelsea and Sevilla being among their victims. The pre-season success has been built around their new promising signing Gabriel Jesus, who managed to bag seven goals in five matches. They will hope for big things this season and with the squad largely intact, Gunners will be looking for a real push this season.

Crystal Palace vs Arsenal head to head

Both sides have met in 24 encounters since 1994 with Arsenal claiming 12 victories, while Crystal Palace claiming four victories and there have been eight draws.

• Crystal Palace 3-0 Arsenal 04/04/22
• Arsenal 2-2 Crystal Palace 18/10/21
• Crystal Palace 1-3 Arsenal 19/05/21
• Arsenal 0-0 Crystal Palace 14/01/21
• Crystal Palace 1-1 Arsenal 11/01/20

Home

• Crystal Palace 4-2 Montpellier
• QPR 0-3 Crystal Palace
• Crystal Palace 1-1 Leeds
• Man United 3-1 Crystal Palace
• Liverpool 2-0 Crystal Palace

Away

•  Arsenal 6-0 Sevilla
• Arsenal 4-0 Chelsea
• Orlando 1-3 Arsenal
• Arsenal 2-0 Everton
• Nuremberg 3-5 Arsenal

Crystal Palace team news

Palace will be without goalkeepers Sam Johnstone and Jack Butland due to injury, while James McArthur and Michael Olise are also expected to miss out through injuries.

Arsenal team news

Arsenal also have injury concerns with the likes of Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira, Kieran Tierney and Takehiro Tomiyasu expected to miss out on the opener. Gabriel Jesus and Alexander Zinchenko are primed to feature in the first XI, while Martin Odegaard will start in his number 10 role as the new Arsenal captain.

Prediction and odds

• Arsenal win
• Both sides to score
• Goals over 2.5