After stumbling to a 2-0 defeat on the opening weekend of the season, Arsenal will be looking for a much bigger improvement against Palace. The Gunners looked tired against their London rivals West Ham, but the same excuse cannot be used against Alan Pardew’s men.

Palace are a side well and truly in transition, their summer signings have been brilliant and they are linked with a whole host of other names.

As for Arsenal, the summer window speculation has massively died down, leaving us all wondering what on earth could be going on. A striker and a defensive midfielder is still desperately needed to ensure that the Gunners’ title bid is serious, but as of yet no signs are indicating that either will be incoming.

We’ll be taking a look at who we believe will start the game against Palace:

Cech

Debuchy – Koscielny – Mertesacker – Monreal

Coquelin – Ramsey

Alexis – Cazorla – Oxlade-Chamberlain

Giroud

Cech will hope for a much better game this time around, after having the finger pointed at him for both of West Ham’s goals. He will start behind what we believe to be the same back 4 that started against West Ham, despite Bellerin returning from injury.

As for the midfield, we can see Ozil being dropped for Alexis Sanchez, who should be almost 100% match-fit now. Ozil looked a little lax against the Hammers, which frustrated many Arsenal fans. Sanchez could start alongside the Ox and Cazorla, it should make one hell of an attack to sit behind the striker.

Olivier Giroud will probably be given the nod ahead of Theo Walcott up front once again. The Frenchman must outwit the relatively big side that Palace possess. With the midfield he has behind him, there’s no excuses. Giroud must score goals if he is to continually keep Theo out.