Oliver Glasner could be forgiven for preferring to enjoy a rest with his family in Austria a few days before Christmas rather than preparing for Crystal Palace’s 29th game of the season – a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Arsenal on Tuesday night. However, any suggestion that Palace may have to prioritise given they remain in four competitions was unsurprisingly dismissed.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Glasner after his team’s 4-1 hammering by Leeds on Saturday. “If somebody tells me that we lose on purpose, the next day I’m not the manager any more.”
There has been a stark contrast in Glasner’s approach to cup competitions compared to his predecessor, Roy Hodgson, something that first became clear in Palace’s run to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup in his first full season in charge. They had been eliminated in that competition as well as the FA Cup by the time he took over at Selhurst Park in February 2024 and picked his strongest team for Palace’s wins over Norwich, QPR and away at Aston Villa – the first of three victories over Unai Emery’s side that season, including the FA Cup semi-final – which set up their meeting with Arsenal in the last-eight. That ended in a 3-2 defeat at the Emirates Stadium in December 2024 thanks to a somewhat controversial hattrick from Gabriel Jesus after Palace had led at half-time.
Almost exactly 12 months on, Glasner must now try to figure out how to gain revenge against the Premier League leaders in a fixture they were forced to reschedule to this week due to their European commitments.
Glasner has been a victim of his own success after leading Palace to their first major trophy via victory over Manchester City in May’s FA Cup final. The demands of playing in Europe for the first time are catching up with some exhausted players, several of whom have barely had a rest all season. Palace fielded an entirely different side featuring four teenagers in the 2-2 draw with KuPS in their final Conference League fixture last week. Glasner admitted he will have no option but to select the majority of his first-choice team that looked extremely jaded as they uncharacteristically conceded four goals from set-pieces at Elland Road. “Have to. Yes, have to,” he said.
There are no such issues for Mikel Arteta, although the Arsenal manager must balance his desire to win only a second major trophy in six years at the helm with extreme pragmatism. Last year, a hamstring injury suffered by Bukayo Saka in the first half of Arsenal’s Premier League win at Selhurst Park a few days after their comeback in the Carabao Cup went a long way to ending their hopes of catching Liverpool in the title race. Arteta had made several changes to his starting line-up for the first game but was forced to bring on his big-hitters after the break with Palace leading. Saka came off the bench to set up Jesus for the crucial second goal, even if Glasner was furious that he appeared to be offside in the buildup and there was no video assistant referee to call on, as will be the case again on Tuesday.
Arsenal have not lost to Palace since a 3-0 Premier League defeat to a side managed by Patrick Vieira in April 2022 – a run of eight matches that includes seven wins. Jesus, who scored twice in the 5-1 league win over Palace before suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury against Manchester United three weeks later, looks set to start for the first time since then in what will be his 100th appearance since joining from Manchester City in 2022. Arteta revealed that the Brazil striker wrote a letter to his teammates explaining what football means to him and how it affects his life. “It was something beautiful,” said the Arsenal manager, who is also expected to hand starts to Ethan Nwaneri and Noni Madueke as he shuffles his pack in attack.
“We are used to it,” said Arteta of the congested schedule. “I think this week was the only full week we had to prepare. The rest until February at least is going to be like this. We have a beautiful opportunity to go into the semi-final of a competition so we will be ready.”
