William Saliba, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus could make their competitive debuts for Arsenal against Crystal Palace on Friday.
Mikel Arteta was confident ahead of his team’s opening match, as Arsenal travel to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace on Friday. Considering their form in pre-season and the players’ fitness levels, the Gunners had looked sharp and ready for the Premier League challenge.
Arteta may have had his starting lineup for this game ready two weeks ago. Arsenal’s final pre-season game in the USA had on show what looked like the strongest team available, considering those out of contention through injuries.
Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kieran Tierney, Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira missed the entire pre-season through fitness issues, and Arteta delivered an update on the quartet during his pre-game press conference.
Arteta said, “Three out of four of those players [Tomiyasu, Smith Rowe, Tierney, Vieira] will be training this afternoon, and if everything goes well, they will be available for selection and in the squad. Hopefully, we can start to recover because they’ve been missing a lot of minutes and time in pre-season, and they are really important players for us.”
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Then the manager continued to speak specifically about Tierney and Tomiyasu, saying, “Hopefully not, the reason they got those persistent injuries are for different reasons, probably because the squad didn’t enable them to recover, and [we] don’t play them when it was necessary, and it was too tired when they weren’t fully recovered so sometimes we had to rush them.”
“It was a combination of things with those two players; they’re so pushy and willing to contribute to the team. We know that with those two fit and performing at their best, we are much stronger as a team.”
Aaron Ramsdale will wear the No.1 shirt and will be the first choice in goal for Arsenal. In front of him will be a back four consisting of Ben White at right-back and William Saliba making his senior competitive debut, lining up alongside Gabriel Magalhaes at the heart of the Arsenal defence.
Oleksandr Zinchenko will complete the backline as he makes his full debut for the Gunners. Arteta will start the game with a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka starting in midfield. Meanwhile, new Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard will start in a slightly advanced role ahead of the double pivot.
Bukayo Saka will attack from the right-hand side, while Gabriel Martinelli is the obvious choice on the opposite flank. Star summer signing Gabriel Jesus will be eager to make his mark, and he, too, will make his competitive debut for Arsenal and will leads the line for the Gunners against Crystal Palace.
Predicted Arsenal XI: Ramsdale; Ben White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Partey, Xhaka; Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Jesus
