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Alan Pardew: Crystal Palace striker threat can unsettle Arsenal defence

Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew has backed target men Emmanuel Adebayor and Connor Wickham to put the pressure on Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday.

Former Arsenal player Adebayor and Wickham are likely to lead the line for the Eagles, whose boss hopes they have the same effect as West Ham's Andy Carroll, who scored a hat trick against the Gunners in a 3-3 draw last weekend.

"Players of that size, power and pace can terrorise defences," Pardew, again without the injured Dwight Gayle, told his prematch news conference. "That's what we want Connor and Ade to do.

"Connor's had some terrific games for us -- just not enough of them. We've really missed his presence at times, and we took Adebayor in the last window because we were struggling to get Connor on the pitch.

"It's been stop-start with injuries for him, and he hasn't had a run at it.

"But we've been pleased with his progress, and next year if we can stop this run of injuries he gets we can have a good player on our hands."

Palace have taken four points from their last two games to all but end any lingering fears of being caught up in the relegation battle.