Arsenal Vs Crystal Palace: Managing midfield crisis 2.0

Arsenal host Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon with a raft of midfield injuries and knocks. As they did not against Everton two weeks ago, they must manage this midfield crisis far more ably.

When Arsenal travelled to Everton two weeks ago, there were major concerns regarding their central midfield options. Lucas Torreira was suspended and would miss the match, Granit Xhaka was also unavailable through injury, while Aaron Ramsey pulled a muscle in the week and was a major doubt to start.

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In the end, it was deemed that Ramsey could feature, but only for limited minutes. Unai Emery felt it better to keep him on the bench and introduce him at half-time. That meant that he went with the usual back three and two central midfielders. The problem, though, was those central midfielders were the fourth and fifth-choice options, Matteo Guendouzi and Mohamed Elneny.

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Neither are bad players per se, and Guendouzi has great potential, but when they are asked to lead an undermanned midfield rather than partner a more experienced presence, problems arise. And for Arsenal against Everton, there were plenty. Everton would go on to win 1-0 and completely control the game, in large part because of the stranglehold they had over the midfield.

On Sunday, the Gunners play another middling Premier League team with extremely dangerous attacking players. Crystal Palace come to the Emirates with nothing to lose and plenty to throw. The likes of Wilfried Zaha, Andros Townsend and Michy Bathsuayi offer great attacking threat, comprising one of the most dynamic and prolific front threes in the Premier League outside of the top six.

Consequently, controlling the midfield will be key for Arsenal. If they are able to dictate the pattern of the match through extended periods of possession and press Palace high up the pitch, forcing rushed and inaccurate service, isolating the attacking players, they can much better deal with the danger the ferocious attacking weapons pose.

But the same three players who missed some or all of the Everton match might not be available on Sunday. Ramsey pulled his hamstring against Napoli on Thursday and is certainly out, Xhaka is dealing with a hip problem and will undergo late fitness tests on Sunday morning to determine his availability, while Torreira took a bang to the head in Naples and is uncertain to feature also.

Emery may choose to again use Guendouzi and Elneny in central midfield. He may shift to a back four and field a third central midfielder in Alex Iwobi or Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Torreira or Xhaka may be available and he partners one with Guendouzi or even fields both.

Whatever Emery does in the central midfield, and I am not sure what the right course of action is, it is important he gets it right. He got it wrong against Everton. That cannot happen again.