Possible Arsenal line- up To Play Against Crystal Palace – Podolski To Start?

After a disappointing draw against Southampton in midweek, Arsenal now host Crystal Palace at the Emirates on Sunday. The Gunners are currently second in the table, thanks to Manchester City’s 5-1 rout of Tottenham at White Hart Lane and Chelsea’s 0-0 draw against West Ham.

Arsene Wenger will have to reiterate that his side cannot ill afford to drop any further points in their quest for the title. The Gunners now host a Tony Pulis led Crystal Palace side whose resurgence in the past few weeks has been nothing short of utter brilliance. Crystal palace looked down and out at the start of the season having lost seven of their first eight matches under previous manager Ian Holloway, but Pulis has managed to pull the Eagles together.

Palace are now 4 points clear off the drop zone and stand at a respectable 14th place in the table just a point behind Swansea who are at 10th. So can Palace stop the rampaging Gunners or will Arsenal just steamroll their opposition? Here is Arsenal’s strongest possible line up.

Goalkeeping:

As pretty much obvious, Wojciech Szczesny will start in goal to muster another clean sheet in front of the vociferous Gunners faithful. Arsenal have conceded quite a few goals in the past few encounters but as most of the Palace wins have been decided by the thinnest of margins, so it’s evident that Szczesny will not be under immense pressures on Sunday.

Defence:

Kieran Gibbs should start in the left wing back slot, replacing Nacho Monreal in the starting eleven. The young Englishman is more efficient at going forward and is equally good tracking back and offering width on the pitch for his side. Bacary Sagna should start in the right back slot with Mertesacker and Koscielny as the centre back defensive partnership. In the Saints game, the French German pair allowed too much space to Lallana and Rodriguez for their liking. They need to plug in the gaps and will have to keep their concentration throughout the entire course of ninety minutes to keep their pace at the top of the table.

Midfield:

Mathieu Flamini will miss out thanks to the red card he picked up against Cardiff. Moreover Wenger will also be without his key men Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey for the clash. As a result, Mikel Arteta will get a start in the middle of the park. Tomas Rosicky might be drafted in after a surgery on his nose, but Wenger prefers to play Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the middle of the park rather than the Czech International. So expect a Arteta-Ox combination in the midfield while Mesut Ozil, who had a breather of a match against the Saints will continue to play in the number ten role.

Serge Gnabry should start on the right with Arsenal’s best player currently, Santi Cazorla expected to draft on the left. This triumvirate should be looking to pull defenders out of position and make space for the lone striker up front.

Strikeforce:

Olivier Giroud should lead the Gunners frontline with all his attacking forays and his ball holding skills up front. The Frenchman is brilliant working as a target man and his movements off the ball will create space for the midfield.

P.S: Here is an alternate to the previous line-up that Wenger might use.

With Giroud, not scoring enough number of goals, Podolski might get a chance to start this time along with Giroud on the left side, which means Cazorla can play on the right pushing Gnabry to the bench.

Szczesny

Sagna-Mertesacker-Koscielny-Gibbs

Ox-Arteta

Cazorla-Ozil-Podolski

Giroud