Arsenal vs Crystal Palace: 3 mistakes for Arteta to avoid

Arsenal get to watch the Premier League unfold on the weekend as their eighth fixture of the season is held back until Monday night when a certain Patrick Vieira comes to town.

No weekends ruined! How kind of the fixture gods to spare supporters that pain. Although what is worse, the prolonged wait, or that?

Nothing can be done about it now as Crystal Palace head north of the river Thames as part of a run of games that sees Mikel Arteta’s side play at home in four of the five next matches.

With an unbeaten run of five matches in all competitions Arsenal find themselves in much happier circumstances than previously, even if talk of these being superior performances that signal a dramatic change in fortunes needs to be tempered.

Arsenal vs Crystal Palace: 3 decisions Mikel Arteta to needs to make for Monday’s Premier League clash at the Emirates Stadium

Two 1-0 wins over relegation candidates, a home success over AFC Wimbledon and a 0-0 draw with Brighton are improvements on scoreless defeats, but they’re not exactly awe-inspiring.

Facing a side with just one win from their opening seven matches, albeit playing better than the results suggest, presents a fine opportunity for Arsenal to extend that run and continue climbing closer to towards the upper echelons of the league table.

How the team will look and what approach is taken will be in the manager’s thoughts just as much as the fans. While the team is at a stage where it almost picks itself, there are some nuances of the setup that can be debated: how Arsenal go about their business and what roles certain individuals play.

Looking at how Arteta approaches Monday’s clash, there are three decisions to take.

1. Stop Asking Too Much of Individuals

Play your best players in their best positions and let their finer qualities sing.

This generally relates to the midfield where whichever pair is chosen might be asked to play the de facto left-back role. One of the primary benefits of signing Takehiro Tomiyasu was that Arsenal could be build up in the three-man defence without the need for someone like Granit Xhaka to drop off and aid progression.

Gabriel, Ben White and Tomiyasu can all progress the ball from deep and it’s time we saw a double pivot of midfielders actually acting like midfielders. What it does is ask too much of both in each case as one needs to fill in at left-back and cover Kieran Tierney’s spaces, with the other manning the midfield on his lonesome.

It’s already happened this season with various pairings: Xhaka and Sambi Lokonga, Xhaka and Odegaard, and Partey and Sambi.

If you’re going to play two central midfielders…then play two central midfielders. Give Arsenal more presence and impetus instead of being too reserved.

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