About three weeks ago, when Arsenal looked to be in dire straits following a run of unjustifiable performances and results, supporters may have dreaded facing Crystal Palace, the team they host at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday.
The supposed fear wasn’t to do with Palace’s form at the time, rather, the in-house issues in North London; Mikel Arteta’s team were without a Premier League win in almost two months, were poor in nearly every area and looked to have lost the budding structure that embodied their early growth under the young Spanish manager.
Observers focus on that seven-game winless run but tend to forget the run of results even before their 1-0 success over Manchester United on November 1 wasn’t inspiring.