Crystal Palace to go 'full strength’ against Arsenal after Oliver Glasner U-turn

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Evening Standard

·18 maggio 2026

Crystal Palace to go 'full strength’ against Arsenal after Oliver Glasner U-turn

Eagles boss had said he would rotate in the possible title-decider, but has now had a change of heart

Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner insists he will play his “strongest team” in Sunday’s potential Premier League title decider at home to Arsenal.

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Glasner had previously confirmed his intention to rotate his squad in the final weeks of the season, with one eye on the Conference League final which takes place in Leipzig three days after the Selhurst Park clash.

But the Palace boss has now backtracked over those claims, now asserting that he will play a full-strength side when league leaders Arsenal visit Selhurst Park on Sunday.

Arsenal could have wrapped up their first league title in 22 years before this weekend, if they beat Burnley on Monday and Manchester City drop points away to Bournemouth on Tuesday evening.

Arsenal are two points clear at the top, with two games to play. But if City match or better Arsenal’s result against Burnley when they travel to the Vitality Stadium, then the title will go down to the final day.

Oliver Glasner

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“I will play the strongest team against Arsenal. We do it for us, we don’t do it for City and we don’t do it for anyone else. We do it for Crystal Palace and we do it for our fans,” Glasner told Match of the Day after Palace’s 2-2 draw away to Brentford.

“It’s the last game [of the season] at Selhurst, they deserve to see a top performance. This is what we want to show against Arsenal and of course we will manage the minutes a little bit.”

Palace will be sweating over the fitness of defenders Chris Richards and Chadi Riad ahead of the visit of Arsenal after the centre-back pair were forced off injured against Brentford.

Glasner confirmed that Richards, who was a second-half substitute at the Gtech Community Stadium, had twisted his ankle but said he hoped the American international could return to training this week.

“Chris I think twisted his ankle,” Glasner said. “I think [Igor] Thiago landed on his ankle and then it twisted, it's quite swollen so we have to assess it further, but hopefully he can return in the midweek."

Riad, meanwhile, was withdrawn with a quarter-of-an-hour to play in west London after appearing to injure his left leg.

Glasner will provide an update on the duo in his pre-match press conference this week.