Arsenal vs Crystal Palace – Carabao Cup: Preview, Predictions and Lineups

Arsenal begin their mini-series against Crystal Palace on Wednesday night as the two London clubs meet in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.

The Gunners, who had not won this competition since 1993, barely had to break a sweat to progress to the last 16. Wins over Bolton and Preston they have reached a walking pace. Palace, meanwhile, have beaten Norwich City, Queens Park Rangers and Aston Villa and are looking for their first League Cup semi-final place since 2012.

After a woeful start to the season, Palace have settled into Oliver Glasner’s first full season in charge. The Eagles are up to 15th place Premier League table having extended their unbeaten run to five games with a 3-1 win over Brighton in the A23 Derby on Sunday.

Arsenal are also unbeaten since returning from the international break in November, but fans were left deflated Saturday’s goalless draw with Everton. While the pressure has yet to mount on Mikel Arteta, Arsenal’s upcoming clash with the Eagles is important for the Spaniard. This is a fan base that expects to win, and the Gunners have not claimed silverware since Arteta’s first season in charge.

here it is 90 minutes guide to Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-finals.

Arsenal vs Crystal Palace head-to-head results (last five games)

Current form (all competitions)

Arsenal are still without a number of full-backs for Wednesday’s Cup tie, with Arteta confirming ahead of Saturday’s draw that Riccardo Calafiori was not ready yet return to action due to groin injury.

Calafiori, Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Oleksandr Zinchenko are therefore expected to miss out again in midweek.

The Gunners manager will make a couple of changes from his weekend XI, but a strong line-up is expected to be fielded. Thomas Partey could slot into Arsenal’s midfield, while Raheem Sterling is in contention for a rare start in the front line. Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard are likely to play despite the backlog.

Arsenal predicted line-up against Palace (4-3-3): Stripe; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; Partey, Rice, Odegaard; Then Havertz, Sterling.

Glasner has decided with a stable XI in the Premier League and there are unlikely to be any wholesale changes from the team that started at the Amex on Sunday. However, the Eagles are unlikely to change.

Cheick Doucoure and Daichi Kamada, who scored a brace at the Emirates for Eintracht Frankfurt, could both make the Palace XI after coming off the bench on Sunday.

Former Gunner Eddie Nketiah started the third and fourth round wins over QPR and Aston Villa. He could replace Jean-Philippe Mateta up top.

Wednesday’s visitors are without Adam Wharton, Matheus Franca, Joel Ward and Chadi Riad due to injury.

Predicted Palace line-up against Arsenal (3-4-2-1): Henderson; Chalobah, Lacroix, Guehi; Muñoz, Kamada, Doucoure, Mitchell; Sarr, Eze; Nketiah.

Glasner’s Eagles have settled after a terrible start to the season, with the Austrian facing a squad without the talented Michael Olise. Ismaila Sarr is City’s new danger man, and the former Watford winger will be crucial to their chances on Wednesday. They must maintain a threat in transition against a team capable of suffocating their opponents into submission.

However, while Arsenal have exercised impressive control in recent weeks, they have struggled in the final third. Palace are unlikely to dig in to the extent that Everton did on Saturday, but the visitors will concede ground and aim to frustrate their hosts. The Eagles’ back three could tame an unbalanced front line that saps confidence, and Arteta needs to be careful with his team selection here. A rotated Gunners outfit could struggle.

Palace may have a sniff here, but it’s hard to back the visitors to win outright.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 Crystal Palace

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