Arsenal Vs Palace: 5 key players to watch — Please score soon

2. Christian Benteke

Christian Beneteke is archetypal Arsenal destroyer. Towering at 6-foot-5, immensely strong and powerful, dominating in the air and deceptively quick when in the channels, with a positional knack that allows him to flourish from crosses in wide areas, if you could build a striker to play against Arsenal, it would be Benteke.

In the reverse fixture just a few weeks previous, it was not the goal-getting of Benteke that caused the Gunners problems. Instead, the presence that he was and the focal point that he provided commanded attention. As a result, there was far greater space in wide areas for Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend to exploit. And it was indeed those two who combined for Palace’s first goal, largely because the Arsenal defenders were all sucked towards Benteke.

With Palace again expected to surrender possession and play on the counter-attack, it will be important for them that Benteke is able to collect the scraps of service that will come his way, hold up play, win fouls, relieve pressure off of his defence, and make his presence known. He certainly has the calibre to do so. If he does, Palace will have opportunities to score on the break.