The Palace coach also offered an injury update on Chris Richards, who was subbed off in Palace’s 2-2 draw away at Brentford on Sunday
Crystal Palace may have nothing to play for after having secured Premier League safety and missed out on European qualification, but Oliver Glasner hinted at picking the strongest possible starting line-up in their last league game of the season against Arsenal on Sunday.
Despite being scheduled to face Rayo Vallecano in a historic Conference League final only three days after the clash against the Gunners, Glasner stressed that he is not willing to make wholesale changes ahead of the decider.
“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.
“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.”
In his press conference before the trip to Brentford, the Crystal Palace coach had explained his rotation plan leading to the Conference League final.
“I think we talked too much about it,” Glasner said. “I will tell the players today – I felt it, we need to stop it. This was why we could win the FA Cup, because we never prioritised the FA Cup. We had the first big rotation after winning it on Tuesday against Wolves, but not before.
“So we won’t rotate a lot. Yes, we will maybe make more and earlier substitutions like we did now, maybe after 60, 70 minutes latest, maybe one or two at half-time if that’s possible, but everything else we won’t do.
“This is a little bit different to last year and also to the end of the season. We had to rotate because, for example, City was the third game within six days, and this is now the fourth game within 10 days. But then we have two games in 10 days.”
Suggested Articles
Come for the Adam Wharton goal, stay for the Adam Wharton backflip…
Powered by @SunExpress Airlines 🛫 pic.twitter.com/zzcxFsiwD1
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) May 17, 2026
Richards suffers injury ahead Arsenal duel
Following Palace’s 2-2 draw against Brentford, Glasner confirmed that Chris Richards’ second-half substitute at the Gtech Community Stadium was enforced.
“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.”
Adam Wharton and Ismaila Sarr netted one each, but Palace surrendered two leads, with Dango Ouattara completing a brace to rescue a point at home for Brentford.
Should Arsenal win both their last two games of the season, they will be crowned Premier League champions for the first time in over two decades regardless Manchester City’s results against Bournemouth and Aston Villa.
