Queens Park Rangers will try to get their first away points of the season as they travel to face London rivals Arsenal on Boxing Day at the Emirates Stadium. QPR did manage to climb out of the relegation zone last weekend after beating West Bromwich Albion 3-2. Striker Charlie Austin bagged a hat-trick in that match and will be in the starting line up against the Gunners.
QPR have three victories in their last five matches, but they have failed to avoid defeat in all their away league matches so far. Arsenal come into the game with the frustration of having dropped two points against Liverpool last weekend due to a very late equalizer. The Gunners are currently sixth in the table, two points behind fifth-placed Southampton and 15 below league leaders Chelsea.
Arsene Wenger's men have lacked consistency in recent weeks, they have three wins, three losses and a draw in their seven league matches. That might be partially due to injuries, so Arsene Wenger must be happy now to welcome Tomas Rosicky and Yaya Sanogo back in the team. However, Mesut Ozil and Jack Wilshere will be out of contention until 2015 while Aaron Ramsey and Mikel Arteta will miss the match on Friday.
Probable line-ups:
Arsenal: Szczesny - Chambers, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Monreal - Flamini, Rosicky, Walcott, Sanchez - Giroud, Welbeck
Queens Park Rangers: Green - Onuoha, Dunne, Caulker, Yun - Hoilett, Barton, Kranjcar, Mutch, Fer - Austin
My prediction: Arsenal to win 2-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Arsenal win - 2/7 Draw - 5/1 QPR win - 12/1
kkole 9 years ago
Arsenal played well today. I think that Arsenal slowly gain their form and I think that in next few matches they will have all wins. Alexis play better and better ( despite that miss from penalty today ) and they play faster and create more chances. So today they had easy opponent but they played well, I think that they...
Arsenal played well today. I think that Arsenal slowly gain their form and I think that in next few matches they will have all wins. Alexis play better and better ( despite that miss from penalty today ) and they play faster and create more chances. So today they had easy opponent but they played well, I think that they will continue to play like this in future.
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VlahovicNovo
9 years ago
While Arsenal is a big favorite in this match certainly i think it will not easy to win.Arsenal game with plenty instanbility and after some good victories they fall into form.On other side QPR in the last 6 matches recorded 3 wins and 3 losses and that reflecting their form.I think here could be rich with goals.
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seculla
9 years ago
As sharpe said, when it comes to London derbies it's always tough. But when you compare this two teams and quality of their players, you'll see that this should be easy win for Arsenal. They are not very good this season, they have struggled and lost points from teams that they expect to win, but I don't think that QPR...
As sharpe said, when it comes to London derbies it's always tough. But when you compare this two teams and quality of their players, you'll see that this should be easy win for Arsenal. They are not very good this season, they have struggled and lost points from teams that they expect to win, but I don't think that QPR are able to do something on Emirati Stadium.
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sharpe
9 years ago
You never know on this London derbies.Obviously on paper Arsenal are very strong favourites and Queens Park Rangers played very poor away from home.Some of the Arsenal injured players will return for this game and that is another bad news for Rangers.I expect very difficult game for QPR.
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