Arsenal are under pressure to win at Crystal Palace, says Ray Parlour

By Jefferson Lake

Friday 14 August 2015 15:23, UK

Ray Parlour believes Arsenal are already under pressure to beat Crystal Palace this weekend.

Palace finished an impressive 10th in the Premier League last season but Parlour thinks they should be aiming for a top-eight place this time around.

His former club Arsenal have been tipped to mount a title challenge but optimism has been diluted by the opening-day defeat to West Ham.

Arsenal struggled to produce much attacking play in their 2-0 loss to the Hammers and Parlour says they will need to show the resilience and ability to recover that was the hallmark of the trophy-winning teams of which he was a part.

“There’s pressure on every game when you’re at the top level,” he said. “When you’re a top side people expect you to win every week so when you don’t, it puts a question mark on it.

“Palace had a brilliant result at Norwich and Alan Pardew will have his team fired up and ready to go but if Arsenal are going to be title contenders they have to forget about West Ham and show they can bounce back.

“They’ve been very positive in the pre-season and if they can go back to that then everything will be back to normal and back to how it was in the summer.

“The squad will have had a meeting this week and Arsene Wenger will have watched the West Ham game six or seven times. He will want feedback about where it went wrong and where they lost the game.

“If you’re going to win leagues you can’t worry about the past and what’s gone, you only look to the future.”

Parlour feels Palace will provide a stern examination of Arsenal’s mental strength and cites several factors in that assessment, notably the summer retention of their key attacking players and the acquisition of midfielder Yohan Cabaye from Paris St Germain.

And he believes the Cabaye deal may be the best one completed by a Premier League club during the current transfer window, and also says the unique Selhurst Park atmosphere will make life difficult for Arsenal.

“Palace have kept their good players such as Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha, and they bought Yohan Cabaye, who was probably the signing of the summer in the Premier League,” he said.

“Getting him in gives them something different which they didn’t have and I think Palace will be looking at top eight this season.

“Selhurst Park is a tough place to play as well, it’s a fortress for them. It’s an old-fashioned football ground and they will take a lot of points off the top teams there this season.

“It’s not ideal getting them early in the season but if Arsenal have any intention of winning the league this season they have to put in a performance and get a result there.”

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