Palace play an Arsenal side that appear to have found their groove, can their former captain come back to haunt them? Here are our areas of interest for tonight's fixture.

Statistically, Arsenal Aren't That Convincing

We love looking at xG stats -- they provide insight through data that you might otherwise just leave to perception. A pundit prior to tonight's game might highlight that Arsenal are unbeaten in four games and that, as a result, they have turned their form around and the fans should finally have some faith in Mikael Arteta.

However, if you look at their xG stats in the last four games, only the Norwich win was a convincing one with chances that matched the goals they scored.

Their draw against Brighton and wins against Burnley and Tottenham show an underlying issue with how many key chances they create. 
Football at the top level tends to be a balancing act with two sides equalling each other out, only for one side to have the rub of the green. Arsenal appear to have been the benefactors of such luck in recent weeks.

International Break offers Opportunity for Olise Rethink

The topic of who starts on Palace's right hand side has been up for debate ever since Jordan Ayew missed a golden opportunity to put Palace 2-0 up against Brighton, and it will continue to promote discussion prior to tonight's fixture.

Michael Olise, Palace's £8m summer signing from Reading, is chomping at the bit to get into the starting 11, and having produced in his cameo versus Leicester City, the pressure on Patrick Vieira to include him is only going to keep building. 

I wrote a piece just a few weeks ago about why Vieria persists with Ayew -- and given Arsenal's pace down the flanks, we're likely to see Ayew once again chosen to start the game in that position. 

However, considering the impact he's had in limited outings so far, Olise can't be far off a start. Perhaps Vieira will surprise us tonight after all. 

Edouard's Growing Role must soon Deliver

Having made a dream debut for Palace against Tottenham, there was some unrealistic expectation that he's continue to contribute in a similar fashion. Not every team will defend like Spurs did, and nor will chances be as easily executed as they were in that game. 

That isn't to say that he hasn't contributed so far. A player that was labelled as being lazy for Celtic has made some difference by being active in the high press. The striker has applied pressure 61 times this season, with nearly 25% of those successful. Comparatively, Christian Benteke has applied pressure 41 times this season, of which 26% were successful. For a side that defend from the front now, Edouard is delivering some of the end product he needs to. 

But it is ultimately up front that this really matters; Palace haven't created a significant number of clear chances for the striker. While his xG (bar the Spurs game) hasn't been great, his statistics for carries (the number of times a player controls the ball with his feet) was nearly doubled, and for shot creating actions was also significantly improved during the Leicester game. He's also attempting and completing more passes, all of which suggests that Edouard is growing more comfortable in the system he's playing in. 

Now we just need to see a few more chances created for him, and for him to take a few more shots when they become available.