Arsenal bounce back to go eight points clear v Palace

Arsenal 4 Crystal Palace 1    
Premier League   
Sunday 19th March 2023 2pm   

A win was certainly crucial yesterday to keep the belief high as football enters an international break and Mikel Arteta’s players delivered the three points on a far less stressful afternoon than many had feared. Palace, having dismissed Patrick Vieira only two days before the game, did not play significantly better under a caretaker coach, although they did provide a couple of scares over the course of the game. At the conclusion though, the scoreline was a fair reflection of the homes side’s domination and thankfully the opening goal came before half an hour had been played, and with the next one converted before the interval, it would have taken a remarkable turnaround for the Eagles to take anything from this game. 

 

One highly valid fear was that the two hours of football played three days previously by the Gunners would impact on their performance, but fortunately this did not prove the case, a testament to the fitness levels at the club. Palace themselves will spend the next fortnight presumably adapting to life under the returning Roy Hodgson with a view to top flight survival, whilst Arsenal’s eyes will be on the much bigger prize that awaits if they can hold off Manchester City. 

 

You need a bit of fortune sometimes to win things, although over the course of the season we’ve seen things go both for and against Arsenal. When Wilfried Zaha shot against the post early on, and the ball hit Aaron Ramsdale as it cannoned out, it could have as easily gone back into the goal as wide of the post. It was a salient reminder of Zaha’s threat, although those who think he might be a good short-term option as a free agent in the summer might have noticed that his tracking back left a little to be desired, as Ben White proved dangerous in attack.

 

The Arsenal right back began the move that led to Martinelli’s goal, as the Brazilian, after receiving the ball from Saka, engineered himself an angle to shoot and made no mistake. He’s having quite a season, having outscored Saka in the league and the contract extension signed a few weeks back looks like an excellent piece of business for the club. The home side continued creating chances until Saka made it 2-0 just before half-time with a composed finish low into the corner. The VAR check fortunately didn’t find an offside and the mood was buoyant during the break.

Off the pitch, it was amusing to see the Palace ultras dressed in black, reminding us where the nascent Ashburton Army took their inspiration from. If there had been any kind of face off outside the ground between the two sets of fans… well, who would have known who to wallop?

 

Palace obviously had to try and salvage something from the game and did threaten the Arsenal goal a few times during the second half. They didn’t score until Arsenal had increased their lead with a wonderful goal fashioned between Trossard and Xhaka. When they did, it came from a corner, which is becoming a bit of a familiar story. For the most part, Arsenal’s defence performed well, and special mention has to go to Rob Holding, who there were understandable doubts about before the game.

 

Hopefully William Saliba will return before the forecast 4 – 6 weeks, but in the meantime, Holding has to cover for him, including the amount of possession that is relied upon from Arteta’s centre backs. Holding moved around plenty to make space for passes and didn’t do anything blatantly daft. He picked his passes and has obviously been working hard in training to become more adept at the style of play his coach wants to see. Defensively, he generally coped with Palace’s threat. There were subs waiting to come on before Palace made it 3-1, and Arteta stuck with the changes to give Tierney and Jesus the last 25 minutes as Zinchenko and Trossard came off. Apparently in their last 13 matches in all competitions, Arsenal have kept just three clean sheets. Can they continue to concede so regularly and still win the matches they need to? It’s an area where improvement can be made and might have to. 

 

Palace came close to making it 3-2 in the 70th minute, but fortunately Zaha’s effort went just wide. That could have made for a far nervier ending, but calm was restored soon after when Tierney’s low cross was met by Saka to score his second of the afternoon. Job done, game over. Jakub Kiwior even got a few minutes at the end, and the team finished the game with a back four of Partey, Holding, Kiwior and Tierney. 

 

4-1 might make this match sound like a formality, and in reality, it was a fairly stressless win, even allowing for the odd scare. Before the game, although fans would have hoped for this scenario, the alternative was certainly playing in people’s minds. Understandable concerns about how energised the players would be proved to be unjustified, and now the boot feels like it might be on the other foot with Manchester City’s continued progress in two cups. 

 

If you regard the Southampton Friday night match as a weekend game, the Gunners now have a solitary midweek fixture between now and the season’s end – ironically against Manchester City. Before the final Premier League weekend of the season there are eight midweeks where games might be played. Whilst Arsenal play on one of those, Manchester City will have to play in five of those even if they are knocked out by Bayern Munich in the Champions League last eight. And if they make the semi-finals, then it will be seven. Three league matches (Arsenal, West Ham and Brighton) and two or four European games. Granted, they have a deep squad, but all the same, it is an intense programme. Mikel Arteta can spend time preparing his squad for a game every week with the exception of the Etihad trip on 26th April. 

 

So on that level, with time fans might reflect on the Europa League elimination at the hands of Sporting Lisbon with more positive feelings depending on how the season pans out. Arsenal have ten matches remaining, and if they simply keep winning, as they have done for their previous six league fixtures, they will get over the line. The experience of players that have arrived such as the two Manchester City men and Jorginho will surely benefit the psychology of the group and the spirit is obviously high. It’s a wonderful chance and yesterday’s win was vital. The points are in the bag, we can relax for two weeks and await the ten ‘cup finals’ to come. The season’s record is won 22, drawn 3 lost 3. That’s remarkable. Interesting times, for sure, and I suspect the vast majority of us did not expect to be anywhere near this position when we remember what was happening a year ago. Well done to everyone at the club, especially Edu and Arteta, for proving this particular observer wrong.

 

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