#fixture congestion

#fixture congestion

I'm happy to have this team, but I'm a little concerned about the noises I hear around the team and the individual prizes given to players, because football is a team sport. You have to be ready to work as a team, prizes don't interest me. It's different because there's a lot of recognition [this season]. I don't want to talk about the past, but about the future. Fewer prizes and more concentration, that's what we want.

It's going to be a really good game. I think it's going to be competitive and there's an edge between both teams after our competition last year. They're very much similar to how they played last year, a similar shape and they've made a few improvements and some shrewd signings. They've done really well. We know Charlton are going to be very competitive in terms of the way they play, similar to the Portsmouth game in many respects, but we're prepared for that.

Oliver Glasner spent the week arguing that Crystal Palace's fixture congestion has made the FA Cup holders victims of their own success. So he will have been mightily relieved with the ease that his side dispatched AZ as an outstanding performance from Ismaila Sarr reignited their Conference League campaign. The Senegal forward scored twice after Maxence Lacroix had given Palace the lead, even if Jean-Philppe Mateta endured one of his off-nights in front of goal as he missed an early penalty

Arsenal have voiced strong opposition to Crystal Palace's request that their Carabao Cup quarter-final be played on 23 December, with Mikel Arteta insisting it would not be fair to make both teams play two matches in little more than 48 hours. The tie is scheduled for Tuesday 16 December in a gruelling run of three matches in five days for Palace, who have a Premier League game at home to Manchester City two days earlier and a Conference League fixture against KuPS on 18 December.

Last year, the Ballon d'Or winner [Rodri] got injured and missed nearly a season. "This season, the Ballon d'Or winner [Ousmane Dembele] is out again with a muscle injury. "How long will this keep happening until even the club owners realise it's bad for business? "We're looking at the player health issue but even the people owning clubs and leagues are starting to take note and realise the system isn't working for anyone.