Can Palace derail Arsenal’s march in this weekend’s London derby?

Arsenal's Eberechi Eze and Gabriel Maghalaes/HANDOUT

Arsenal v Crystal Palace

With Arsenal in great form, London rivals Crystal Palace face a tough challenge travelling to the Emirates Stadium.

With four fixtures in nine days, coach Oliver Glasner will be considering rotating his settled team, although he is usually reluctant to do so.

Glasner’s usual line-up is difficult to break down, but Arsenal will be relentless moving forward because their players can create chances and play with an intensity Palace will find hard to handle.

The Gunners’ current form indicates they will dominate possession.

With four wins and one draw in their last five fixtures, their striking force of Saka, Gyökeres and Trossard have been in excellent form.

Palace play counter-attacking football and are well rehearsed in set pieces, which will test Arsenal’s expected back line — probably Justin Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, and either Lewis Skelly or Ricardo Calafiori.

Between them, they have provided a solid defence all season and are difficult to break through.

Only Erling Haaland has put the ball past David Raya at the Emirates, and the Gunners have kept three clean sheets in their last four home matches.

Palace will hope to overwhelm Arsenal’s midfield by playing a 3-4-2-1 formation, but Mikel Arteta is likely to deploy Eberechi Eze, Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi in midfield — a trio of exceptional quality.

Ethan Nwaneri is also available as a replacement for the injured Martin Ødegaard, though Arteta prefers to use him off the bench.

Palace have very capable players, with Jean-Philippe Mateta as striker, Adam Wharton and Daichi Kamada in midfield, and Maxence Lacroix and Marc Guehi — who is being tracked by Barcelona and Real Madrid — at the back in front of goalkeeper Dean Henderson.

Despite Crystal Palace sitting in an impressive eighth place, I believe this superb Arsenal squad, in my opinion, is their strongest for years, will prove too strong for Glasner’s well-drilled team.

Brentford v Liverpool

Arne Slot assembled his players at the AXA Training Centre on Monday for a thorough debrief following Liverpool’s shock defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.

He has had little time to prepare for this match as the squad flew out to Germany for their Champions League fixture on Wednesday.

This is a tricky match for an out-of-form Liverpool because, against expectations, after losing coach and star players Bryan Mbuemo and Youne Wissa, Brentford have more than held their own — sitting in 13th place with 10 points.

New coach Keith Andrews has done well organising his 4-2-3-1 line-up, with the inspirational Jordan Henderson driving the team forward.

In this match, Henderson comes up against his old club and knows many of their squad and qualities well.

Brentford’s Igor Thiago is tough, strong and threatening, and he is scoring. Kevin Schade always gives 100 per cent, and Mikkel Damsgaard makes up the very formidable attacking trio.

Behind them, Henderson and Yehor Yarmolyuk impress with their spirit and ability. In goal, Caoimhín Kelleher has made a good start to his Brentford career after leaving Liverpool for more game time.

Slot brings his battered team south to London on the back of three defeats.

The big question is: does the coach start Salah from the bench or give him another chance to return to his old form?

Conor Bradley needs to step up, Virgil van Dijk must improve, and Milos Kerkez still looks uncertain at the back — nowhere near the player he was at Bournemouth last season.

Alexander Isak, injured in the midweek Champions League match, and Florian Wirtz have to start scoring for Liverpool, but currently it seems more likely that Hugo Ekitike will provide the goals.

If Henderson and Yarmolyuk can hold the centre against Ryan Gravenberch — who has been fighting off an injury this week — and Alexis Mac Allister, this could be a tough afternoon for the champions.

Aston Villa v Man City

At last, Unai Emery has got his team ticking, and their 2-1 win at Tottenham last weekend has restored much of the spirit missing earlier in the season.

Villa are not full of big-name stars, although they do have one of the world’s best goalkeepers in World Cup winner Emi Martínez.

Playing his usual 4-2-3-1 formation, Emery is getting the best out of his midfield, with Boubacar Kamara and Amadou Onana performing well.

At the back, Lucas Digne, Pau Torres, Ezri Konsa and Matty Cash have been solid, and they will line up against Pep Guardiola’s formidable attacking force of Savinho, Tijjani Reijnders, Phil Foden and Jeremy Doku, with the powerful goal-scoring machine Erling Haaland as spearhead.

Emery has assigned Kevin Danso to shackle the big Norwegian — that could be pivotal to how this game goes.

Guardiola admits that once again City are in a transformation period with new players arriving.

Reijnders has adapted to Guardiola’s methods very quickly and is impressing more and more. Nico González is trusted to hold midfield in Pep’s 4-1-4-1 formation, and at the back, Nathan Aké has been restored to the centre of defence after being left out for a while when he considered leaving the Etihad.

This match is interesting because Villa are confident and City have forced their way back up to second in the table behind Arsenal after a patchy start to the season.

Like many other top teams, City have not had much chance to prepare for this match because of an away Champions League fixture on Tuesday, which meant flying out on Monday and back on Wednesday.

Villa are in an even more difficult situation, having played on Thursday against Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles, but that was an easier match than meeting City.