Arsenal welcome Crystal Palace to the Emirates this week in what looks like an interesting tie in the League Cup quarter-finals.
- Date: 18/12/2024
- Kick-off time: 19:30
- Location: Emirates Stadium, London
Arsenal are currently 3rd in the Premier League with 30 points from 16 games. It's been a far from perfect opening few months of the season from a Gunners perspective, with the team largely falling short of the expectations that were placed on them coming into the campaign. Some positives can certainly be taken from the team's overall performance, but Mike Arteta's side are nine points worse off than they were at this stage last season and are 13 points worse off than they were after 16 games in 2022-23. Ultimately, despite significant investment in the transfer market, the team is not notably improving.
Arsenal's issues largely stem from their inability to create a high volume of big chances from open play, with the Gunners expected goals from open play rate (currently 16.95xG) making them a very middle-of-the-road side in the Premier League from a creative standpoint. They're obviously excellent from set pieces, but they're a little bit too reliant on them at present, and if they want to win major trophies, they need to become a side that can find multiple solutions in tight games.
Many are now criticising Arsenal's transfer strategy, with the club having failed to invest in its forward options in proportion to the levels of expenditure on other parts of the squad. It may well be that Arsenal don't have the means to score enough goals to keep pace with the likes of Liverpool, but if their attacking staleness persists throughout the season, serious questions will be asked of Mikel Arteta.
The League Cup is not Arsenal's priority this season, but they could do with putting on a decent attacking performance here in response to the mounting criticism. The Gunners haven't won this competition since 1992-93 and haven't won a major trophy since 2019-20, so even if they don't win either of the two major cups, they have a big chance here to give themselves something to shout about.
Crystal Palace are currently 15th in the Premier League with 16 points from 16 games. On the whole, Palace's season has not at all gone to plan, with the team failing to build on the extremely promising end to last season. However, after some unfavourable turnover in the squad during the summer, there are now signs that Palace are finding their feet again as they look to reach the semi-final of the League Cup for the first time since 2011/12.
Palace were rocked by the loss of Michael Olise in the summer and they've found it tough to match last season's level without him, but after a long period of poor results, the Eagles look to be heading in the right direction as they come into this game unbeaten in their last five games.
The defensive trio of Marc Guéhi, Trevoh Chalobah and Maxence Lacroix have performed to a very high level in recent weeks, while right-back Daniel Muñoz has been a consistent performer this season, but Palace will need to extract more from their attackers if they are to kick on this season. Chiefly, it would help if Eberechi Eze could rediscover the performance levels that we all know he's capable of, with the England international having had a season marred by both injury and patchy form.
Palace are highly unlikely to get relegated this season, so they should consider this competition a monumental opportunity. They're the underdogs here, but they're in a pretty good position to pull off an upset so they should come into this game in a confident mood.
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