Crystal Palace take on Arsenal in their first home game of the Premier League season at Selhurst Park on Monday August 21, 2023, with an 8pm kick off time. The game will be live in the United Kingdom on Sky Sports.
🚨| David Coote will take charge of Crystal Palace vs. Arsenal on Monday Night Football. #CRYARS pic.twitter.com/aciUIpGqus
— Arsenal Express (@AfcExpress) August 16, 2023
Crystal Palace vs Arsenal Predictions And Best Odds
Crystal Palace Recent Form
Crystal Palace started the season with uncertainty over the future of several key players, but this didn’t prevent a win on the opening weekend.
A brilliant possession-based performance saw them pick up all three points away at Sheffield United, with the only goal of the game scored by Odsonne Edouard.
Palace had 67.8 percent of the possession, 24 shots on goal, hit the target eight times, and were dominant in all areas. Jordan Ayew had a goal chalked off for offside, as did Edouard, and the score could have been by a wider margin.
The stand out performer was debutant Jefferson Lerma, who picked up the Man of the Match award, but the entire team put in a superb showing. However, this was against perhaps the weakest team in the Premier League and things will get considerably tougher in weeks to come.
Arsenal Recent Form
Arsenal kick started their campaign by winning the Community Shield via penalty shoot-out at Wembley, and followed that up with an opening Premier League victory at home to Nottingham Forest.
In the game against Forest, they dominated possession with 78.3% and were superior to the opposition in every way, including having fifteen shots on goal during the game. Great passing through midfield was key to their success, as well as some great attacking play from the front three of Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, and Gabriel Martinelli.
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Saka and Nketiah netted Arsenal’s goals in this 2-1 victory but head coach Mikel Arteta will still be demanding more from his players in the future. They were quite wasteful in front of goal at times and were caught out on the counter attack, including for Forest’s goal. It’s a good start to the season for Arsenal but there is still room for improvement.
Crystal Palace vs Arsenal Head To Head
Between October 2018 and the end of the 2021/22 season, Arsenal picked up just one victory over Crystal Palace in eight meetings. Palace won once and there were five draws. However, Arsenal regained their dominance in this fixture last season with a 2-0 win at Selhurst Park on the opening day of the campaign, and a 4-1 home victory later in the season.
Looking at the last five Crystal Palace vs Arsenal fixtures, the latter have a significant advantage. Arsenal have won three of the last five meetings, Palace have won victory, and the other was a 2-2 draw. Looking back a little further, five of the last ten meetings have finished level.
For those who like numbers, Arsenal have an aggregate goals scored advantage of 11-7 from those five games, which is an average of 2.2-1.4. Despite this, Palace have had the most shots on target with 24 to Arsenal’s 19. There have also been 41 corners in total, eleven yellow cards shown, and a combined 108 free kicks taken.
Top scorer from those five meetings is Martinelli, with three goals, and Saka has netted twice.
Crystal Palace vs Arsenal Prediction
Crystal Palace will be lifted by the recent Michael Olise contract extension and their confidence-boosting opening-day victory, but it’s hard to look at any result other than an Arsenal win here.
The Gunners have a recent advantage over The Eagles, and they look to be one of the best teams in the Premier League this season. Palace still have weaknesses in their team for Arsenal to exploit and that is what will ultimately gain the away side the win.
The prediction for this match will be a close Arsenal victory following a tough, hard-fought encounter.
Arsenal to win 2-1.
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Crystal Palace vs Arsenal Betting Odds
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As expected, Arsenal are clear favourites to win this match at odds of around 8/15 (decimal odds of 1.53). Crystal Palace are 5/1 (6), and the draw is around 3/1 (4) or higher.
Martinelli has netted three goals in the last five meetings and is 9/4 (3.25) to score anytime during the match, and Saka is priced the same having scored twice the last time these sides met and also on the opening day of this season. Average shots on target in the last five meetings is Crystal Palace 4.8 to Arsenal’s 3.8, and four shots on target for each team here could be tempting at odds of 11/8 (2.38).
Our prediction for this match is an Arsenal win, but some may be put off by the short odds and will look to build value. This could be done with a player to score and Arsenal to win combination bet. For example, Saka to score and The Gunners to win is 3/1 (4).
Photo credit: Rocky Biggs on Wikimedia , CC BY-SA 4.0
