It feels like an age since Arsenal picked up a straightforward win.
Converting our chances, controlling the match for 90 minutes, keeping opponents at arm’s length, retaining all XI players on the pitch – it’s all so overrated.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal prefer to make things a real challenge.
And so it went again at Selhurst Park on Monday night as the Gunners made hard, nerve-shredding work of collecting all three points, keeping pace with Manchester City and Brighton at the top of the Premier League table.
As is so often the case, this could have been a much simpler night’s work for Arteta’s men but they have discovered a habit – a borderline sadistic desire – to make matters much harder than they need to be. On this occasion, the team decided going down to 10 men with about a third of the game to play was a sure bet for making things more interesting…and so it proved.
Of course, we can look back on the game now and laugh, brushing it all off with a shrug and a chuckle, but it could so easily have been a different outcome and, at some point this season, this penchant for self-flagellation will cost them. More on this later.
It came as something of a surprise to see the manager opt to stick with Thomas Partey at right back from the outset at Selhurst, particularly as I expected Palace to offer much more in attack than Nottingham Forest had done last week.
And although I’m not a huge fan of leaving a player as good as Gabriel on the bench, I’m happy to say the manager seems to have called it correctly again. The hosts were pretty timid from the outset and allowed Arsenal the lion’s share of possession, preferring to sit in an ultra-compact mid-block.
Though good opportunities were harder to come by then we might have liked, it was only bad luck and bad finishing that kept us from taking a 2-0 lead into the break. Eddie Nketiah, who continues to do an admirable job up top, hit the post after a brilliant turn on the edge of the box before leaving heads in hands with a bizarre and unnecessary chip from six yards over the bar when any sort of on-target effort would have likely resulted in a goal. It was a hugely frustrating half for Eddie and uncharacteristically wasteful from the Hale End youngster.
To his credit, however, he didn’t let the squandered chances affect him and it was his quick-thinking and quick feet that won us a second-half penalty, which Martin Odegaard duly dispatched.
With the lead established and a pretty firm grip on the game (Palace had offered very little going the other way), it fell to Arsenal to make things interesting for themselves. They began by baiting the referee with repeated and obvious incidents of time-wasting – the sort of thing everyone has been warned against and booked for since the start of this season.
And it was no surprise then when Takehiro Tomiyasu was booked for dawdling (in conjunction with two other players) over the taking of a throw-in. That’s right – with more than 30 minutes still to play, with the match under complete control, and with the focus still on scoring more goals – the players decided to start time-wasting.
And look, on another day it might have been a complete footnote in a game they went on to win comfortably, but this is the Premier League and terrible officiating is never far away. You cannot leave it to chance that the referee won’t do something erroneous and ridiculous. Barely 10 minutes later, the Japanese was on his way back to the changing rooms after Jordan Ayew got goal-side of his man and fell over under absolutely no pressure. It took one look at the referee and a few howls from the crowd and the second yellow was duly brandised.
Yes, it was a poor decision, but I don’t have any sympathy. We laid the foundation for our own downfall with some nonsensical decision-making and thereby allowed a card-happy referee the space to make a card-happy decision.
Needless to say, the remainder of the match was spent more or less with our backs to the wall. It was pretty much the exact opposite of the first half, with Arsenal camped in a low block and Palace enjoying almost exclusive possession of the ball.
There was no out ball for the Gunners and so it simply kept coming back at them in waves. It made for extremely uncomfortable viewing.
Luckily, Palace were pretty much toothless in the final third and, for all their crosses and territory, didn’t trouble Aaron Ramsdale’s goal unduly – though I don’t think anyone in the back four enjoyed a comfortable night.
The relief at the final whistle was palpable and testament to the shift those on the pitch had put in for what was a pretty extensive period. Three points on the road at Palace are not easily come by and we shouldn’t underestimate their value one bit.
It was a much more difficult night than it ought to have been, though, and it is’s not the first time we have said that, I doubt it’s even the 10th time.
Sooner or later, if they are to continue their development as a team, the Gunners are going to have to learn how to win beautifully because we’re too well used to winning ugly. I sometimes wonder if we’re addicted to it.
Blog on You Gunners 