Preview: Crystal Palace v Arsena
We head across the capital on Monday night for a meeting with Crystal Palace, as both teams aim to make it two wins from two to kick off the campaign.
Roy Hodgson’s Eagles beat Sheffield United on the opening weekend, but have only managed one win from their last eight encounters with us and lost both meetings last season.
Those were two of 10 successes we had in London derbies in 2022/23 – an English league record – and we’ll be hoping that we can continue our derby day dominance when we head to SE25 for our first away day of the season.
Roy’s return reaping rewards
Eyebrows were raised when Hodgson was parachuted back into Palace in March to help them stave off relegation, but he won five and drew three of his 10 matches to eventually achieve a highly-respectable 11th-place finish.
They remained unbeaten at home in that time, and in contrast to Hodgson’s usual pragmatic style, his team are averaging 15.7 shots per game under the former England boss, five more than they were having under Patrick Vieira, with 24 were recorded in their win against the Blades.
That was despite the summer departure of talisman Wilfried Zaha who joined Galatasaray on a free transfer, with Luka Milivojevic, James McArthur and Jack Butland also departing. £17 million man Matheus Franca is the only big-money recruit from Flamengo, while Jefferson Lerma switched from Bournemouth after his contract expired. Hodgson will also be delighted that Michael Olise spurned the advances of Chelsea to sign a new deal on Thursday.
Arteta on Hodgson’s impact: “Hats off to him. I told him personally when I saw him last week. It’s not only what he’s done, it’s how he’s done it. He’s so natural and he’s still so humble, so intelligent and the way he manages the team, the results that he’s having – it’s just excellent.
“He’s somebody to look very closely at of how he’s done it because it’s amazing what he’s done. If we are invited, we have a drink together because it’s always fascinating to listen to him and the people that have been alongside him for a long time because they’re the ones that know him really well
