Crystal Palace will be without at least five players on Friday when they face Arsenal at Selhurst Park in the first Premier League game of the season. The Eagles will be missing some crucial squad players when they host the Gunners as they look to repeat last campaign's feat of ending unbeaten over their London rivals.
It comes after Mikel Arteta has had yet another huge summer in the transfer market. The Spaniard has made five more additions to his squad, spending over £100million so far in strengthening both squad depth and quality for the upcoming challenge.
Last season saw the North London side narrowly miss out on top four to rivals Tottenham, but they will be hoping they can go one better and make a return to the Champions League with their changes. It all starts at Selhurst Park, with a challenge that Arteta has labelled "difficult".
READ MORE: Every word Mikel Arteta said on Takehiro Tomiyasu's fitness, Bernd Leno and Arsenal transfers
"They showed last season how difficult they are to beat," the manager told reporters ahead of the game. "And how consistent they are at home especially against the big teams they [had] some great results. They had that result against us. Hopefully we learned some lessons from that day because 30 minutes that we had that day were nowhere near the standards that we needed and we paid the price for it."
The Gunners have some potential absences, but so too do Palace. Speaking at the end of his pre-match press conference, manager Patrick Vieira gave an update on three players and said: "Macca [James McArthur] will not be a part of the squad tomorrow. Tonks [James Tomkins] has an issue with his calf so won’t get involved tomorrow. Michael [Olise] is a couple of weeks away.”
Those three key absences are on top of the loss of goalkeeping duo Jack Butland and Sam Johnstone, who aren't expect to be involved on Friday night. That brings a total of five injuries to a squad that the manager has already claimed is "light" on numbers.
Arsenal predicted XI vs Crystal Palace as Jesus and Saliba make debuts but Tomiyasu misses out
Arsenal news and transfers LIVE: All the latest updates and rumours from the Emirates Stadium
Full Arsenal Premier League fixture list for 2022/23
Big Arsenal Forum: Answer the call as we ask fans 7 key questions
Tierney moves one step closer to Arsenal return as Smith Rowe suspicion is confirmed in training
