After 10 straight Premier League wins at the Emirates, Unai Emery’s Arsenal finally came unstuck as Crystal Palace came away with all three points in a 3-2 victory over the North London side. This tactical analysis will look at how the home side paid the price for failing to break down Crystal Palace’s stubborn defence.
Lineups
Arsenal
Unai Emery continued with the same 3-4-1-2 shape as used in the 1-0 win at Napoli last Thursday. The Spaniard was forced to make several changes to his lineup, however, with Aaron Ramsey ruled out with a hamstring injury and Granit Xhaka not risked because of a hip complaint. A much-changed midfield saw Mesut Özil return to the number 10 role ahead of Mohamed Elneny and Mattéo Guendouzi as Lucas Torreira dropped to the bench.
The defence also underwent changes as Shkodran Mustafi returned for the suspended Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Greece under-21 international Konstantinos Mavropanos came in for Nacho Monreal.
Crystal Palace
Palace manager Roy Hodgson made fewer changes to his side who lost 3-1 at home to Manchester City the previous weekend. One of these was forced, as Max Meyer came in for Jeffrey Schlupp, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season after coming off with an ankle injury in the Manchester City game.
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