Crystal Palace have a glaring weakness that one Arsenal player is capable of exploiting in Sunday’s Premier League clash.
Arsenal host Palace at the Emirates, looking to cement their position at the summit of the English top flight.
Mikel Arteta’s team play after Liverpool, who face Brentford on Saturday evening, and at the same time as Manchester City, who take on Aston Villa at Villa Park.
The Gunners could either be six points clear come Sunday evening or be behind Pep Guardiola’s team on goal difference. Thus, the Palace encounter is huge for the North Londoners, and Arteta needs to ensure he deploys a team that can exploit the Eagles’ frailties.
Gabriel Martinelli can exploit Crystal Palace weakness on Sunday
One of Palace’s biggest strengths is the threat they pose from the right-hand side.
Ismaila Sarr plays narrowly and looks to find space in the channel, while Daniel Munoz bombs forward outside of him.
This combination creates a large proportion of Palace’s goals, and Arsenal will need to be wary of this threat on Sunday. Having said that, this dynamic is a double-edged sword for the Eagles.
Munoz averages 3.14 touches in the opposition penalty box per 90 minutes, putting him in the 94th percentile for this metric. However, this unsurprisingly often leaves a lot of space on Palace’s right, as the Colombian vacates the defensive third to get forward.
Chris Richards, Oliver Glasner’s team’s right-sided centre-back, then has significant work to do covering wide areas, which creates more space in central areas for the opposition to exploit.
In order to capitalise on this weakness, Arteta must start Gabriel Martinelli over Leandro Trossard. Martinelli was excellent against Atletico Madrid in midweek, and his pace, direct running and movement make him perfectly suited to taking advantage of Munoz’s adventurousness.
It would be negligent for the Arsenal boss not to take advantage of this area of weakness in the Palace ranks. Martinelli must start; it’s an absolute no-brainer.
Bukayo Saka should play narrower than usual against Crystal Palace
While Martinelli should stay high and wide to draw Richards out and potentially push Munoz back, Bukayo Saka should be deployed in a more narrow role.
Tyrick Mitchell is a more conservative wing-back on Palace’s left, while Marc Guehi is comfortable defending in wide areas regardless.
Therefore, it’s possible that Saka would be doubled up on and left isolated if he starts as a touchline winger. Instead, the England international should start ten yards further infield when the Gunners are in possession.
This will create uncertainty for Mitchell, and also get someone closer to Eberechi Eze, who can combine with the playmaker.
This is another fairly obvious tactical ploy that Arteta should make that could work wonders.
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