Eberechi Eze fired the winner against his former club as Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 1-0 at the Emirates to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table.
Arsenal’s win means they took full advantage of a perfect weekend for their Premier League bid, with points from both Manchester City and Liverpool.
Arsenal’s seventh successive win in all competitions sees them four points clear at the top of the table, seven points clear of champions Liverpool, who suffered their fourth consecutive league defeat at Brentford on Saturday, and six points clear of fellow champions Man City, who were beaten by Aston Villa on Sunday.
Mikel Arteta was able to rely on his Arsenal’s strength in set-pieces as Declan Rice fed Palace’s Ismail Sarr into the area and it fell to Eze to slot home his first Premier League goal for the Gunners since their £67.5million move from Selhurst Park in the summer.
Arsenal will now finish the month of October at the top of the league, and the next match in the competition will be on November 1. Arteta’s side will turn their attention to the Carabao Cup where they will host Brighton live on Ski Sports on Wednesday.
How Arsenal made the most of a perfect weekend in the Premier League
All of Arsenal’s Premier League rivals have dropped points, offering a new opportunity for the Gunners to strengthen their title claim. Arteta’s side started strongly, full of energy as the aroma of possibility washed over the Emirates.
In the first period, it was difficult to get a breakthrough. Starved of any opportunities, striker Victor Giokeres, who fans expected to have turned the corner with his side in the Champions League against Atlético, struggled. His eight touches in the first half summed up his anonymous display before the break.
Eze’s winner becomes Arsenal’s 11th set-piece goal this season in the Premier League
However, there was no chance for his teammates to say anything either. Arsenal failed to register a single shot in the first 30 minutes of the game. In fact, Arsenal’s first try, Leandro Trossard’s 33rd minute strike from a tight angle, was their longest wait for a try in a Premier League game since April 2021.
However, their second attempt on goal, Eze’s winner, came as a result of a set-piece. Their 11th goal of the kind, two more than anyone else in the Premier League.
It was a half that didn’t provide any real entertainment. Palace themselves, struggling for confidence on a four-game winless streak after their 19-game winning streak was snapped by Everton. The first half produced a kG of just 0.20, the lowest in the first half of any Premier League match so far this season, but Arteta will care very little about that given the result.
After the break, the shackles were broken and Arsenal went close for a second when Gabriel headed over the crossbar, again from a set-piece.
Gjokeres’ influence grew in the game and his runs down the channel chasing direct passes got the Emirates off their feet, but their wait to celebrate a Premier League goal from their £55million man, who has not scored in the league since September, continues. However, another win for Arsenal means that may be a concern going forward.
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Arsenal take the lead against Crystal Palace through Eberechi Eze!
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Gabriel hits the crossbar with a header in Arsenal’s Premier League match against Crystal Palace.
Arteta: I value this win more than any other this season
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta talks about his side’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta:
“I just told the guys I appreciate this win more than any other this season. Knowing how hard it is, you come after playing every three days, you have a big opportunity with the things that happened this weekend.
“I knew we were playing against a team that, in my opinion, is one of the best in recent times in terms of organization, how hard they make it, how much they can frustrate you and the moment you lose that concentration, they will definitely punish you.
“We managed to be very steady, playing the game we have to play. In the first half we were a little stuck, we found a way to score, in the second we attacked better and were more fluid.”
“At 1-0 we knew we had to suffer because they are the team that have scored against any other opponent this season, so keeping a clean sheet is very, very important.
Glasner: Few teams create chances at Arsenal
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Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner praised Arsenal’s set pieces after his side’s 1-0 defeat at the Emirates.
The Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner:
“I didn’t see a lot of teams create a lot of chances here, honestly. I think we had a few moments where we could have been more dangerous.”
“Just in the second half, I think there were two or three times, we found Ismail Sarr in the pocket. Then Declan Rice recovered and stole the ball, instead of having an overload, because he applied pressure.
“It just took us too long, and that’s why we couldn’t create more. But on the other hand, we didn’t give them much, we gave them a little too much in one situation.
“It was to Arsenal’s credit that they recovered quickly. We made two mistakes and were penalized, and that’s why we lost the game.”
European football is tiring the Palace team
Analysis of ski sports Callum Bishop at the Emirates Stadium:
The defeat means that it is now four games without a win for Crystal Palace. For a team that was flying high for most of Oliver Glasner’s tenure, the Eagles now look wounded.
Of course, they lost Eberechi Eze who ended up scoring the only goal of the afternoon for his new employer. But Palace have lost big players before. Michael Olise joined Bayern Munich and without him they won the FA Cup and qualified for Europe.
Since the start of the season, only four players who did not start against Arsenal have made Palace’s starting line-up for the first Premier League game of the term – Eze was one of them
But that might be the problem. Many teams struggled with playing balance in domestic and European competitions. Glasner’s side may be facing a similar conundrum.
His starting XI consisted of the same line-up that drew with Bournemouth and lost to Everton, while they made just three changes in midweek as they suffered a shock defeat at AEK Larnaca.
In fact, since the start of the season, only four players who did not start against Arsenal have scored their first KSI in a Premier League game this term. Eze was one of them. The other three are Will Hughes, Jefferson Lerma and Justin Devaney.
With so many more games to prepare for and less time on the training pitch, could Glasner’s over-reliance on the same select group of players come back to haunt him?