The biggest difference it seems between FA Cup and League matches appears to be which of the halves we play the better. Against Leeds it was the second, but against Chelsea, Man Utd, and now more recently Palace it was definitely the first.
Pre-game the team more or less picked itself and was unchanged from our previous league outing against Man Utd. There was perhaps an argument for Nelson to start ahead of Pepe given the threat posed by Zaha, and in my preview I wrote Saka as a potential starter at left back without knowing for sure how fit Kola was. But both aforementioned players retained their spots.
Arsenal dominated preceedings for 30-35 minutes or so and oepned the scoring on 12 minutes with perhaps our best constructed goal of the season to date. Luiz was allowed to wonder into the midfield and fire the ball between the lines into Ozil, he wonderfully cushioned the ball to the feet of Laca, who's deft ball just over McCarthy's leg split the Palace defence and was weighted perfectly for Aubameyang to run onto centre of the goal and curl a low effort beyond Guaita. The perfect start!
Arsenal continued to dominate the ball but Palace imposed a cuntish, erm, 'aggressive' style game that started to take it's tole on Arsenal. One of the major turning points through the half was a very cynical and nasty push by Zaha as Torreira was mid air, as a result Torreira knee'd Pepe in the head and landed awkwardly on his back. It left both men on the floor in need of treatment but whilst Pepe was able to continue and finish the full 90 minutes, Arteta was forced to remove Torreira at half time. Given Torreira had been so pivotal thus far to Arteta's structure, this was always likely to prove detrimental to Arsenal's game.
This felt telling in the second half where Arsenal seemed to struggle significantly more to progress the ball up the pitch and mount any kind of sustained pressure on the Palace goal. Luiz often bypassed both Xhaka and Torreira's replacement Guendouzi, favouring to aim a long ball towards Xhaka or behind the full back to little effect.
10 minutes into the second half an Palace had their equaliser. Arsenal switched off from a free kick Palace had just inside the Arsenal half. Expecting the umpteenth long ball to be pumped at them, instead they opted for the short option and move the ball further down their right wing. Kolasinac was slow to go and meet the cross and did little to try and stop a very tame, low, bobbling ball towards the edge of our area. Lacazette didn't cover himself in much glory either, letting the ball run and allowing Kouyate to pick the ball up facing our goal. Luiz's attempts to stop Kouyate in his tracks were feeble, perhaps wanting to avoid giving away a penalty, so Kouyate was able to lay the ball off to Ayew. Xhaka went to meet him but he was in enough space and hadf enough time already that he couldn't do so quickly enough and Ayew managed to get a weak shot off. Luiz stretched out a leg to try and block the ball, but it took a wicked bouncing deflecting over a desperately unfortunate Bernd Leno and it nestled in the back of our goal. This was the definition of a 'bullshit' goal that was partly our own making too.
Palace were extremely poor and provided little threat, and the game was too stop-start thanks to Paul Tierney's inability to let a game flow for Arsenal to get out too often and pose much threat themselves. The game became very scrappy and Palace seemed content enough to come away with a point. Arsenal's job was then made that even harder by going down to 10 men. Auba mis-timed an attempt to block a Palace pass back towards their own goal and his foot landed nastily on Meyer's ankle. It's a pressing tackle you see 50 times a game, but Auba badly mis-timed the challenge and the challenge looked worse on the slow-mo. As a result VAR felt they had no choice but to upgrade Tierney's yellow card to a red.
Post red-card there were only two other real chances of note, one per side. Palace had the first chance from a Zaha cross. Tomkins nodded the ball goalwards, it was just out of Leno's reach but thankfully Sokratis was on hand to hook it off the line in the knick of time. Arsenal then went equally as close, Pepe on the left hand side, just inside the area, hit a low effort towards the far post, it was on target and it took a phenomenal save from Guiata to get finger tips onto the post. It rebounded back towards Guaita who knew nothing about it, but it was right in front of him who could snuff out the danger as Laca tried to smack the ball goalwards.
Ultimately though, neither side was able to get the second goal to win the game, it's another draw for Arsenal who avoid defeat in a game they might have lost last season, but they'd have wanted to and needed to win.
Ratings:
Leno - 6
Didn't have an awful lot to do in all honesty, and the only two occasions Palace really threatened he was left absolutely helpless for.
AMN - 8 (MOTM)
Another absolutely superb performance from the young man. Zaha didn't get a single sniff and AMN marshalled him superbly. Would have liked to see him support Pepe in attack a little more but I feel that a system instruction more than a fault of his own.
Sokratis - 6.5
Made a very important block on the line from a Tomkins header, but otherwise I don't remember much other contribution.
Luiz - 5
At times was unusually unsure in posession and almost got caught out once or twice. His long balls weren't effective like they usually can be but he still carried on trying them which didn't help relieve any Palace pressure. A shame when he's been so good recently but I'm hopeful he'll bounce back.
Kolasinac - 7
Was very impressive, particularly in the first half. Was a dangerous threat when he went forward but his crossing into areas is far too hopeful for my personal liking. Needs a little more finesse if he's going to keep his place ahead of a fully fit Tierney.
Torreira - 7
A huge loss in the second half as we lost the ball winner in midfield so we could transition on Palace. He wins the ball cleanly too and since he went off, Palace were able to buy more and more fouls that broke up play which didn't suit us in any way.
Xhaka - 6.5
A somewhat mixed performance, in no way poor but without his midfield partner in Torreira he was less effective in the second half. Palace also seemed to put a lot more emphasis on pressing him in particular during the second half and that affected his ability to control the tempo of the game.
Pepe - 6
Struggled to get going against an impressive Riedewald. Had more joy and freedom down the left side but by then he had switched flanks too late in the game. Unlucky with his late effort that would have been a worthy game winner.
Ozil - 6.5
Ran for the cause but struggled to create chances when dominating the ball. Probably could have dropped a little deeper at times and help us get up the pitch when we were struggling too. But he produced a moment of quality when it was needed to help set up the goal so for that he gets a bonus half point, didn't seem like much but without the perfect touch we may not have scored the goal.
Auba - 6
The red card means I can't rate him above average, but his goal and workrate defensively throughout the game means a rating below average would feel extremely harsh on what was otherwise a solid performance. Did take his goal very well.
Lacazette - 6
A peculiar game from Laca. The less involved he became, the less I thought Arsenal were able to provide a threat to the Palace goal and get forward into dangerous areas. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: He desperately needs to get himself on the scoresheet again.
Guendouzi - 6
Didn't feel as though he had much impact on the game, can't do the same job as Torreira but he didn't necessarily have a bad game overall. Want to see him influencing the game more.
Martinelli - 6
Was a right nuisance again as soon as he was substituted on. Unfortunately wasn't able to make an impact in the 20 minutes he had.
Nelson - N/A
@gronigooner
Pre-game the team more or less picked itself and was unchanged from our previous league outing against Man Utd. There was perhaps an argument for Nelson to start ahead of Pepe given the threat posed by Zaha, and in my preview I wrote Saka as a potential starter at left back without knowing for sure how fit Kola was. But both aforementioned players retained their spots.
Arsenal dominated preceedings for 30-35 minutes or so and oepned the scoring on 12 minutes with perhaps our best constructed goal of the season to date. Luiz was allowed to wonder into the midfield and fire the ball between the lines into Ozil, he wonderfully cushioned the ball to the feet of Laca, who's deft ball just over McCarthy's leg split the Palace defence and was weighted perfectly for Aubameyang to run onto centre of the goal and curl a low effort beyond Guaita. The perfect start!
Arsenal continued to dominate the ball but Palace imposed a cuntish, erm, 'aggressive' style game that started to take it's tole on Arsenal. One of the major turning points through the half was a very cynical and nasty push by Zaha as Torreira was mid air, as a result Torreira knee'd Pepe in the head and landed awkwardly on his back. It left both men on the floor in need of treatment but whilst Pepe was able to continue and finish the full 90 minutes, Arteta was forced to remove Torreira at half time. Given Torreira had been so pivotal thus far to Arteta's structure, this was always likely to prove detrimental to Arsenal's game.
This felt telling in the second half where Arsenal seemed to struggle significantly more to progress the ball up the pitch and mount any kind of sustained pressure on the Palace goal. Luiz often bypassed both Xhaka and Torreira's replacement Guendouzi, favouring to aim a long ball towards Xhaka or behind the full back to little effect.
10 minutes into the second half an Palace had their equaliser. Arsenal switched off from a free kick Palace had just inside the Arsenal half. Expecting the umpteenth long ball to be pumped at them, instead they opted for the short option and move the ball further down their right wing. Kolasinac was slow to go and meet the cross and did little to try and stop a very tame, low, bobbling ball towards the edge of our area. Lacazette didn't cover himself in much glory either, letting the ball run and allowing Kouyate to pick the ball up facing our goal. Luiz's attempts to stop Kouyate in his tracks were feeble, perhaps wanting to avoid giving away a penalty, so Kouyate was able to lay the ball off to Ayew. Xhaka went to meet him but he was in enough space and hadf enough time already that he couldn't do so quickly enough and Ayew managed to get a weak shot off. Luiz stretched out a leg to try and block the ball, but it took a wicked bouncing deflecting over a desperately unfortunate Bernd Leno and it nestled in the back of our goal. This was the definition of a 'bullshit' goal that was partly our own making too.
Palace were extremely poor and provided little threat, and the game was too stop-start thanks to Paul Tierney's inability to let a game flow for Arsenal to get out too often and pose much threat themselves. The game became very scrappy and Palace seemed content enough to come away with a point. Arsenal's job was then made that even harder by going down to 10 men. Auba mis-timed an attempt to block a Palace pass back towards their own goal and his foot landed nastily on Meyer's ankle. It's a pressing tackle you see 50 times a game, but Auba badly mis-timed the challenge and the challenge looked worse on the slow-mo. As a result VAR felt they had no choice but to upgrade Tierney's yellow card to a red.
Post red-card there were only two other real chances of note, one per side. Palace had the first chance from a Zaha cross. Tomkins nodded the ball goalwards, it was just out of Leno's reach but thankfully Sokratis was on hand to hook it off the line in the knick of time. Arsenal then went equally as close, Pepe on the left hand side, just inside the area, hit a low effort towards the far post, it was on target and it took a phenomenal save from Guiata to get finger tips onto the post. It rebounded back towards Guaita who knew nothing about it, but it was right in front of him who could snuff out the danger as Laca tried to smack the ball goalwards.
Ratings:
Leno - 6
Didn't have an awful lot to do in all honesty, and the only two occasions Palace really threatened he was left absolutely helpless for.
AMN - 8 (MOTM)
Another absolutely superb performance from the young man. Zaha didn't get a single sniff and AMN marshalled him superbly. Would have liked to see him support Pepe in attack a little more but I feel that a system instruction more than a fault of his own.
Sokratis - 6.5
Made a very important block on the line from a Tomkins header, but otherwise I don't remember much other contribution.
Luiz - 5
At times was unusually unsure in posession and almost got caught out once or twice. His long balls weren't effective like they usually can be but he still carried on trying them which didn't help relieve any Palace pressure. A shame when he's been so good recently but I'm hopeful he'll bounce back.
Kolasinac - 7
Was very impressive, particularly in the first half. Was a dangerous threat when he went forward but his crossing into areas is far too hopeful for my personal liking. Needs a little more finesse if he's going to keep his place ahead of a fully fit Tierney.
Torreira - 7
A huge loss in the second half as we lost the ball winner in midfield so we could transition on Palace. He wins the ball cleanly too and since he went off, Palace were able to buy more and more fouls that broke up play which didn't suit us in any way.
Xhaka - 6.5
A somewhat mixed performance, in no way poor but without his midfield partner in Torreira he was less effective in the second half. Palace also seemed to put a lot more emphasis on pressing him in particular during the second half and that affected his ability to control the tempo of the game.
Pepe - 6
Struggled to get going against an impressive Riedewald. Had more joy and freedom down the left side but by then he had switched flanks too late in the game. Unlucky with his late effort that would have been a worthy game winner.
Ozil - 6.5
Ran for the cause but struggled to create chances when dominating the ball. Probably could have dropped a little deeper at times and help us get up the pitch when we were struggling too. But he produced a moment of quality when it was needed to help set up the goal so for that he gets a bonus half point, didn't seem like much but without the perfect touch we may not have scored the goal.
Auba - 6
The red card means I can't rate him above average, but his goal and workrate defensively throughout the game means a rating below average would feel extremely harsh on what was otherwise a solid performance. Did take his goal very well.
Lacazette - 6
A peculiar game from Laca. The less involved he became, the less I thought Arsenal were able to provide a threat to the Palace goal and get forward into dangerous areas. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: He desperately needs to get himself on the scoresheet again.
Guendouzi - 6
Didn't feel as though he had much impact on the game, can't do the same job as Torreira but he didn't necessarily have a bad game overall. Want to see him influencing the game more.
Martinelli - 6
Was a right nuisance again as soon as he was substituted on. Unfortunately wasn't able to make an impact in the 20 minutes he had.
Nelson - N/A
@gronigooner
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