Crystal Palace v Arsenal
15:00
Crystal Palace’s four-game winning run, which saw them take the prized scalp of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and moved them out of the drop zone, came to an abrupt end at St Mary’s on Wednesday as they suffered a 3-1 defeat to Southampton. That result halts them on 31 points, three points clear of the relegation spaces, as they prepare to host Arsenal on Monday night. Arsenal recorded a comfortable victory over West Ham on Wednesday, and will perhaps regain some consistency now that Arsene Wenger has confirmed Alexis Sanchez’s desire to stay at the club.
The main concern for Arsenal will be their weakness away from home recently. They beat Sutton United away in an FA Cup match, but apart from that victory over a non-league side they’ve lost four straight games to professional teams across all competitions, each time by two goals or more. They have, however, scored the second-most goals on the road this season, and given that Palace have the third-worst home scoring record in the league this season the visitors will fancy themselves to create some chances, especially given Palace’s continued injury problems and the fact that they’ve won each of their last four games against bottom-six sides by a margin of at least two goals to nil. Palace have lost five of their last six against top-six sides, so will be apprehensive about the Gunners’ visit.
Despite recent struggles, we think that Arsenal look too strong for a Palace side whose victory over Chelsea should be seen as an aberration. We’ll back the away win in this one.
Betting intelligence provided by Football Form Labs
