Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video
I guess it had to be him. On a day when Arsenal found it tough going against Crystal Palace, the man we signed from them in the summer popped up with the only goal of the game.
Eberechi Eze produced the one moment of real quality all afternoon, finishing with flying style after a Declan Rice free kick was headed out by a Palace defender. He got the right side of Adam Wharton to put us 1-0 up in the 39th minute, and there were clearly some mixed emotions for him. A boyhood Arsenal fan scoring his first Premier League goal for the club must have felt fantastic, but he wouldn’t let a smile cross his face given the opposition and his history there.
It was the kind of match-winning moment we signed him for, according to Mikel Arteta who said afterwards:
Yes, 100%. To strike the ball in the manner that he did it, very similar to where he did it last year, but against us when he scored from that corner, directly on the post. So he’s got the ability to do that, against a team that defends with that many bodies, so physical, don’t allow any space. You have to generate chaos or open space to generate big chances and he took the ball and the goal really well.
His counterpart, Oliver Glasner, was more succinct:
It’s a silly foul and we gave them the second shot with Ebs, and we know he has a good shot.
Having missed a much more presentable chance against West Ham a couple of weeks ago, Eze made no mistake this time, and the importance of that can’t really be understated. Despite Gabriel hitting the bar with a second half header, and Declan Rice seeing his follow up blocked on the line by Dean Henderson, this was a day of few clear-cut chances.
Some might put that down to Arsenal being a bit lacklustre, and perhaps there’s something to that. A post Atletico Madrid hangover maybe, but we weren’t at our best, particularly in the final third. Arteta’s post-game revelation that Bukayo Saka had been ill all week and just about made the game made sense given how peripheral he was for most of the game, although it was his drive inside that drew the foul from which we ultimately scored.
The Palace back three dealt with Viktor Gyokeres well all day too, but while I think there were aspects of our performance that we should look to improve, the biggest reason we found it so difficult was because we faced excellent opposition. Their recent run isn’t just a purple patch, it’s down to the work Glasner has done there to make them a highly organised and disciplined side. You could see, particularly in the first half, how much attention they’d paid to how we like to try and build up, and to make that as difficult as possible for us.
We had a lot the ball at the back, but no way to play through the Palace structure. William Saliba went off at half-time, but only two players – Gabriel and Martin Zubimendi – ended up having more touches of the ball than the Frenchman. Which tells you how and where Palace made us play the game. From front to back they worked really hard to keep their shape and deny us any avenue to get it forward.
Even when they were chasing a goal in the second half, the game didn’t really open up the way you might expect. Again, some of that was us not making the most of the space that did emerge, but in large part it was because of how well Palace played. So, in the end we had to work just as hard, and I do think there’s credit to be given for how well we defended too.
The back four, and Cristhian Mosquera when he came on, were all so solid, and in midfield Rice and Martin Zubimendi did so much work to stop a Palace side who have real threat up front. 1-0 always feels like a knife-edge scoreline, but they barely had a shot on target. The stats sites list one on target from former Gunner Eddie Nketiah, but it’s that cross from the right which Raya claimed as he tried to head home, so even that’s more an anomaly than a clear chance.
Would I prefer another goal or two? Of course, but you don’t get them easily against a side as solid as this, and if you can’t, then you have to do the work at the other end of the pitch. What we’ve learned, if you can put it that way, is that Arsenal this season are more than capable of doing that. 9 games in, it’s 6 clean sheets and that doesn’t happen by accident.
Afterwards, Arteta said:
I just told the boys that I probably value this victory more than any other victory this season, because we knew the difficulty of it after playing every three days. We had a big opportunity as well with the things that happened during this weekend and I knew we played against a team that, in my opinion, has been one of the best recently in terms of organisation, how difficult they make it, how frustrated they can make you, and the moment that you lose that concentration, they will punish you.
For me, it’s still way too early to start talking about the title, because there’s such a long way to go, but what I will say is that a win like this does underline our credentials in that regard. If you want to win the Premier League, there are games you have to grind to get three points from, and yesterday felt exactly like one of those. If you go back to previous seasons when we finished top, there are numerous examples of single goal victories that ultimately proved really important, and yesterday’s win was another game where in terms of points we’re up on last season.
In April, Palace come to our place and drew 2-2. A certain Mr Eze scored that day too. So, when you look Newcastle away, Fulham away, West Ham home, and now Palace at home, we’re putting right things that went wrong last season. And in a weekend when both Liverpool and Man City lost, it was crucial for us to take advantage – something we haven’t always been able to do in recent seasons. This one won’t go down as a classic, but for me this was a really big three points as our impressive start to the season continues.
Right, I’ll leave it there this morning. We’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you later on, we’re recording around 10.30. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server. The pod should be out around noon.
And, later on again, we’ll have an episode of The 30 over on Patreon, recapping all the weekend’s Premier League action, so please join us for that.
For now, have a good one.
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