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2024/25 English Premier League
Matchday 17
Crystal Palace v Arsenal
Selhurst Park
London, England
Saturday, 21 December 2024
Kick-off is at 19h30
Arsenal will be aiming to snap a two-match winless run when they lock horns with Crystal Palace in a London derby at Selhurst Park on Saturday, December 21 in the late kick-off.
The Gunners have only picked up two points from their last two
Premier League outings after being held to successive draws by Fulham (1-1) and Everton (0-0).
Mikel Arteta's side remain third in the standings, but they saw Chelsea open up a four-point gap in second place after beating Brentford 2-1 in a local derby on December 15.
Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest have closed within two points of the North Londoners in fourth spot following their 2-1 victory over Aston Villa on December 14.
The Eagles have slowly been putting more distance between themselves and the relegation zone after going unbeaten in their last five games.
Oliver Glasner's side followed up their surprise 2-2 draw against Manchester City with an impressive 3-1 win over Brighton on December 15 to move up to 15th position, four points clear of the drop zone.
They were the only team in the bottom five besides Ipswich (18th) to win on matchday 16, with Wolves (19th) and Southampton (20th) firmly entrenched in the relegation mire.
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The hosts continue to be without Matheus Franca (groin) and Chadi Riad, but Joel Ward (calf) and Adam Wharton (groin) are in contention to make their returns.
Riccardo Calafiori is still rated doubtful for the visitors, although Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu (both knee) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (muscular) will definitely miss the short trip across London.
Glasner expressed his gratitude to the Palace fans for standing by the team during a tough start and was happy to reward them with an early Christmas present by beating the Seagulls.
"We knew it was an important game for our fans, for the club, and so the players performed really well today," the Austrian said.
"We struggled a little bit at the beginning of the game and at the beginning of the second-half, but then we got the game under control, we scored nice goals, so overall, a great performance and a big win.
"The fans have always supported us the whole season. Even when we had the defeats at the beginning of the season, they were always behind the team, behind us, and we said maybe it's an opportunity for us to give them a little bit back, and maybe a first Christmas gift!"
Arteta felt that his players weren't rewarded for doing everything right against the Toffees apart from finding the back of the net, only the third time they have failed to do so this season.
"We're very disappointed not to win the game because if there was a team obviously that deserved to win it that was Arsenal," the Spaniard said.
"We did everything that was necessary overall apart from the fact that we didn't score a goal. We conceded absolutely nothing, dominated all the direct play, didn't allow them to run and conceded no set-pieces.
"But we go there in so many occasions, we created three or four big chances, didn't score from there, and then the frustrating part is that at the end of those games when they come that way and you are able to do so much to restrict the opposition, which is very difficult to do, at the end you want to be rewarded for what you've done and the difficulty is that we haven't tonight."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings)
Matches - 5
Palace wins - 1
Arsenal wins - 4
Draws - 0
Premier League Matchday 17 fixtures:
Saturday, December 21
14h30: Aston Villa v Manchester City
17h00: Brentford v Nottingham Forest
17h00: Ipswich Town v Newcastle United
17h00: West Ham United v Brighton & Hove Albion
19h30: Crystal Palace v Arsenal
Sunday, December 22
16h00: Everton v Chelsea
16h00: Fulham v Southampton
16h00: Leicester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers
16h00: Manchester United v Bournemouth
18h30: Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool
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