Arsenal vs Crystal Palace: 5 key players in comfy home fixture

3. Konstantinos Mavropanos

There are a couple things to mention here before I start talking about how wonderful Konstantinos Mavropanos is. First of all, I am listing him with the belief that Unai Emery will want to spot either Laurent Koscielny or Sokratis (probably the former) a break before the away trip to Wolverhampton. That match is much more nervy than this one.

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That said, with Mavropanos suddenly emerging as a real option, as he got the start against Watford, you have to imagine that Emery wants to see more of him before the end of the season, which is the second part of him being on this list – this is one of the tamer matches we will be facing before the end of the season. So get him out there and see what he can do, right?

This being the case, he will still have to be on his game. It’s no mere walk in the park to play any Premier League team, and thus it’s not like Mavropanos will be dealing with schoolchildren. We still need him to be sharp and convincing and less rusty than he was against Watford. Not a big ask, really, but it still needs to happen.

Staying with this theme, let’s get on to No. 2.