Arsenal take on Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium in a huge Premier League clash on Sunday afternoon.
The north Londoners currently lead the title race, sitting five points clear of second-placed Manchester City, who don't play in the league this weekend due to their involvement in the FA Cup quarter-finals yesterday. Meanwhile, Palace are 12th but a poor run of form means they are still only five points above bottom of the table Southampton.
That difficult spell in which the Eagles have failed to win each of their last 12 fixtures across all competitions resulted in manager Patrick Vieira losing his job on Friday afternoon, with Paddy McCarthy to take over as head coach on an interim basis. McCarthy will be facing a daunting task in his first game at the helm, although Palace boast a solid record at the Emirates in recent times, remaining unbeaten in their last four visits to N5.
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The Gunners won the reverse fixture back in August, securing a 2-0 victory at Selhurst Park in the season's opening game. Manager Mikel Arteta will have star striker Gabriel Jesus back available as the two London sides battle again today.
Jesus had missed nearly four months of action after sustaining a knee injury during Brazil's World Cup campaign back in November. The 25-year-old was a late substitute during last week's 3-0 win over Fulham and started Thursday's 1-1 draw against Sporting in the Europa League before being withdrawn at half-time in what Arteta confirmed was a pre-planned move.
However, one player that the Spaniard is unlikely to have at his disposal is centre-back William Saliba. Saliba went off in the opening exchanges of the aforementioned match with Sporting after suffering some lower back soreness.
Arsenal were set to assess the 21-year-old over the weekend to decide if he's available for the match against Palace, football.london understands. However, a number of reports from France have since suggested these tests have confirmed that he won't be in today's matchday squad and could even be sidelined for the next few weeks.
Saliba has started all 27 of the Gunners' league games so far this season and his absence would be a major blow to Arteta and co. Takehiro Tomiyasu will miss the game against Palace as well after he also came off injured just nine minutes into the game against Sporting.
The Japanese international left the Emirates on crutches, with Arteta describing his injury as a "serious" one. With that being said, let's took a look at the full squad that the former City assistant coach will have available for the game against the Eagles.
Goalkeepers: Aaron Ramsdale, Matt Turner, James Hillson.
Defenders: Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba (major doubt), Rob Holding, Jakub Kiwior, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Kieran Tierney.
Midfielders: Thomas Partey, Martin Odegaard, Fabio Vieira, Jorginho, Granit Xhaka, Matt Smith.
Forwards: Gabriel Jesus, Emile Smith Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, Reiss Nelson, Leandro Trossard.
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