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Crystal Palace lost 5-1 at home to Arsenal on Saturday night which left Wisters delighted.
Mikel Arteta’s side took chances which their hosts squandered. The two clubs exchanged three goals in the first 15 minutes, with Gabriel Jesus then grabbing a brace. A midweek hat-trick against the same opponentsBefore Kai Havertz put the Gunners 3-1 up at half-time.
Palace continued to create and waste chances until Gabriel Martinelli’s 60th-minute tap-in ended a thrilling contest. Declan Rice made it 5-1 in the closing stages to pull Arsenal back into third place. Premier League Table.
How the game unfolded
Arsenal had to wait until the 54th minute Carabao Cup quarter finals on Wednesday at the Emirates Stadium to find the net against Crystal Palace. Jesus fired against the Gunners after six minutes at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Ismaila Sarr slotted the palace Level in the 11th minute, capping off a fluid passing sequence that began inside the hosts’ own half. The Senegal international was the only Palace player to find the net, though Oliver Glassner’s side outshot Arsenal. The hosts, especially Jean-Philippe Mateta, showed none of the clinical edge that Jesus has suddenly rediscovered.
Arsenal’s re-energized Brazilian scored a goal Premier League Goalless throughout 2024, though scored his second goal of the evening in the first half. For the fifth time this week, Jesus beat Dean Henderson, blasting the loose ball at the breakdown from the inside corner at the near post.
Jesus did not completely eliminate his final points. The number nine hit the post with a header on the half-time cup which Kai Havertz was on hand to finish. When presented with an opening from point-blank range on the hour mark, Jesus beat his effort away from Henderson only for another teammate – on this occasion Gabriel Martinelli – to clear the loose ball.
Before Armory Extending their lead in the second half, Palace had time to waste two more chances, Sarr gently nodding a pair of close-range headers into the welcoming gloves of David Raya.
Rice added an undeserved level of gloss to the scoreline in the 85th minute, curling an effort into the far corner to secure a win that keeps Arsenal within touching distance of Chelsea and Liverpool.
Check Crystal Palace vs Arsenal player rating here
Despite a convincing scoreline and a narrow gap at the Premier League summit, Saturday’s result was tinged with plenty of negativity. most notably, Bukayo Saka lasted only 25 minutes.
The 23-year-old has been Arsenal’s most prolific player and creator-in-chief. Saka didn’t reach the half-hour mark, but still found time to swing in the cross that led to Jesus’ opener.
While Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard had their moments in his absence at Selhurst Park, those wingers have been wrongly dismissed, which will be a tough test if they are tasked with leading a Saka-less frontline for any sustained period.
If Jesus could play Crystal Palace every week. The Brazilian forward, a man whose effort always outweighs his end product, has scored five goals in two games against the Eagles. In the last four days, Jesus has scored 20% of his career goals for Arsenal.
Moving around the pockets of uncertainty that existed between Palace’s back-three, Jesus could have strengthened his personal distance at Selhurst Park. Yet, for once, Arsenal’s number nine will be remembered for his goals rather than his glaring misses.
However, the weight of expectation will soon return as it draws another blank. As Jesus noted pre-game: “The pressure will always be to score.”
“I’m sure both sides will change a few things,” Arteta warned ahead of Arsenal’s second encounter with Palace in four days. However, there were some objectives running through both legs of this double header.
That is, trouble caused by a simple lump ahead of Mateta. Against Palace at the Emirates on Wednesday night, the towering Frenchman Jacob Kivier fired on the ball. Arteta could have remedied that blemish by the absence of his first-choice centre-back pairing, but both William Saliba and Gabriel were thwarted in their progress by a worryingly simple route-one approach.
However, it would be as unfair as a 5-1 scoreline to suggest that Palace simply played under clouds.
Oliver Glassner is not to be underestimated. Kane was a Europa League winner with Eintracht Frankfurt Allegedly four matches away After losing just two months ago. Now his Palace side have opened up a four-point cushion above the drop zone and – despite back-to-back defeats – provided plenty of encouraging signs against Arsenal.
In the midweek cup defeat, Glasner replicated Monaco’s defensive corner setup to limit Arsenal’s power from set pieces. Gabriel’s return undermined that approach on Saturday, but the Eagles managed to dampen Arsenal’s pressure for a 5-1 reverse.
Martin Odegaard, who struggled for a second consecutive league start, was caught in two successive manas as he leapt forward to press. The Norwegian captain led his side’s first wave of pressure, but was repeatedly bypassed by brave and intricate passing, which left the hosts yawning space to go forward.
That Rice started the contest on the bench didn’t help Arsenal’s poor efforts from possession. Thomas Party spent most of the match circling like an old, tattered suitcase on an airport luggage carousel, constantly circling just out of reach of any red and blue shirts.
Rice ended the contest with a crisp strike, but his most telling involvement came two minutes into his second-half introduction. The all-action midfielder was first to the rebound from Jesus’ saved effort before expertly linking Martinelli.
