The squad was announced at 7pm to the sound of massed intake of breath from Arsenal fans everywhere as Ramsdale returns but no Tierney nor Pépé in the squad at all. Apparently, the former may be out for the rest of the season. International football strikes again. Martinelli is only on the bench following his Brazil debut, along with Swanson, Flores, Ogungbo from the U23’s. It is the first time I can remember where Palace’s bench looks significantly stronger than Arsenal’s. Doesn’t bode well! For Palace, Zaha is fit to play, and I fully expect him to put on his best Greg Louganis impression.
First Half
Palace start strongly, pressing all over the pitch and creating mild disarray in the Arsenal defensive ranks as early as the second minute. One such piece of pressing though, nearly backfires in the third minute with a quick break from Arsenal as Palace press, just let down by poor final pass from Laca. Despite this, Palace are clearly beginning to dominate and their fans, who don’t need any invitation to create an incredible noise. In the 10th minute, Zaha’s chronic inner-ear problem has already manifested itself twice. A player with such skill but just so irritating.
After all the pressing and our marked lack of composure all over the pitch, the seemingly inevitable came to pass in the 17thminute. And in many ways it was the exemplar of how badly we had played up until that point.. Gallagher lofted the ball way to the back post from a free kick. Two Arsenal defenders…well, don’t defend with Tavares performing some kind of a dying swan act to allow his man to head it back to some other bloke to score. I fear for Arsenal now.
Palace 1 Arsenal 0
Quite possibly shaken by his part in the first goal, Tavares is beginning to look like Bambi on ice when the ball comes near.
Then in 24th minute Gabriel again decides that tonight we are at home to Mr Cock-Up and charges forward to cut out a pass into Ayew but misses, while Tavares stands on like a bloke admiring the cut of his suit in a shop window reflection… and Ayew passes it into the net.
Palace 2 Arsenal 0
The end of the first half arrives. Palace have turned Arsenal from wild beasts into carrion in the first 45 minutes. Our only hope is that Palace can’t keep up this tempo in the second half, and that we can’t be so bad.
Second Half
Unsurprisingly, Tavares is taken off at half time and Martinelli is brought on with Arsenal moving Xhaka to left back. It has to be said, not a resounding vote of confidence in Tavares after his last outing against Nottingham Forest in which he was equally undistinguished.
In the 53rd minute, Partey gets a yellow for a foul on Schlupp and for a number of minor fouls when totalled up, I suspect. We then begin to see some better football being played by Arsenal with Martinelli on.
Zaha continues to perform like the prima donna in Swan Lake. On roller skates. With a wonky wheel. He really is among the most frustrating and irritating players I can remember watching. So much skill and yet he’s constantly playing up to the “most fouled player in the league” soubriquet. Of course, that is a misnomer as having the most free-kicks given for you is not quite the same thing.
The good period from Arsenal continues and we have a couple of decent efforts from Saka and ESR. On 66 mins Cedric is taken off for Nketiah and on 67 mins – another piece of smooth fast paced passing results in Ødegaard screwing the ball past the post. Much better now and Palace possibly wilting. But is it too late?
And then in the 72nd minute Bambi finally gets what he wants when the slightest of contact in the box results in a penalty. I have no problem with this being a penalty. But only if the same standard of contact is adhered to every time.
Palace 3 Arsenal 0
Before the re-start the clearly injured Partey is replaced by Lokonga. Before the end, Nketiah hits the bar at 3-0 and if it weren’t for bad luck we’d have no luck at all. Game over.
Conclusions
We are now well and truly in a poor position. Seemingly both first-choice full backs are injured, the second choice left back frankly shouldn’t start again this season. Partey looks like he’s out for a while. Pépé is not even on the bench for who knows what reason? We still have some winnable games ahead of us. However, it isn’t the defeat so much as the manner of the defeat which is the concern for me.
First!
I have read the report this time. CER, have a bevvy on me – it sounds like you could do with it.
I’m not too worried.
We were shit, but we were overdue a dodgy performance. We are not good enough to maintain our run of form (about as good as City and Pool over the last 12 games) without a blip somewhere.
Palace were good. And everything went for them. The first goal isn’t a good header back across goal – it is a bloke who has stopped watching the ball getting it in the side of the head and it luckily bouncing off him to his mate to prod home.
For the second, Ayew tries to control the through ball with his right instep, misjudges it, and it hits his left thigh and goes exactly where he wants it to.
For the third, Partey would’ve cleared it is he hadn’t bandaged his leg. Hopefully not a hammy, and hopefully his effort to clear the ball didn’t make the injury any worse.
Anyway. We deserved to lose tonight but I reckon Arteta will do a good job of using it to remind the team how much work we still have to do to get what we want out of the season.
Brighton at home ain’t a bad game to have next.
UTA
Thanks fora very fair report CER .
I’ve speedwatched the game and it didn’t make pleasant viewing even though I knew the score and what to expect . We took a huge gamble on a very thin squad and have lost two players . Let’s hope Tomayisu can return at the weekend. We could play Cedric at left back or in extremis Saka . But unless we can score goals we have major problems . I think we might see a lot more of Pepe and Martinelli might be tried through the middle . GSD has been typically positive and upbeat and we must hope that we can win the next two very winnable games and the Totts stutter at Villa. But we may have seen a very serious dent in our CL hopes appear tonight
Thanks CER.
A bad night, especially 1st half. We have responded well
in tough situations so far this season and so I’m hopeful
we will again. Nuno’s confidence looks shot for the
moment unfortunately and so we will need an inspired
bit of juggling by MA on the left – if Tomi’s fit soon that
might give us the option of Cedric I suppose.
COYGS!
TTG, beating me to the Cedric
thought😉
Cheers Baff!
I am worried. This is not the time of the season to lose key players from a pretty thin squad. Also LWL is hardly great form for the time of year either, especially when measured against nearest rivals.
Sorry CER!
Thanks for the report, CER, especially since I didn’t see the game. Not the result we wanted, self-evidently. I hope it hasn’t dented the team’s confidence as that seems so important for its momentum. The fourth place trophy will go to the team that is most consistent in the run-in. Getting back to winning ways against Brighton is critical.
Thanks CER !
Read it and will be back later – good job though !
Zaha – ugghhh !
The referee was letting someone else tell him what to do last night. I have thought for a while that certain refs are relying on their ear pieces to give them instruction, and I’m not talking about VAR, but last night confirmed it. It was a penalty, the ref was actually in a good position to give it, but there’s no way he gave it on his own, the delay was too long.
All communication between officials should be open to an independent monitor.
Apart from that, we were worse than the ref so no excuses. I don’t actually think we’re ready for the Champions League without some major additions, and some better backup players, but we need it to attract quality.
Have we seen enough of Tavares to decide he’s not suited to English football, or do we sit on him and see how he develops (bearing in mind he’s not going to play if Tierney can get fit and stay fit for a full season)?
Odegaard is a very good player but when he has an off day he may as well not be on the pitch at all. Surprised he wasn’t subbed.
Just a very bland performance with some players who looked a bit tired. It didn’t help that after Saka finally looked like he might be waking up, the manager switched him to the other flank. Mental, that was.
Partey being out for the rest of the season would be a big blow (assuming he wasn’t gonna continue playing like he did yesterday!) but Sambi will have to step up. It will be a big task but as a full international who has had time to get used to the club he has a decent chance of performing at that level. I’m not going to worry about it unless his performances merit it.
I feel for Tavares. He had a great run earlier in the season, there were genuine conversations about how to keep both him and KT3 in the side. He had a bad performance against Forest, but he wasn’t alone that day, and he is not the player who sets the side’s tempo. Same yesterday – although after not playing for a while I can see that Palace’s intensity (kudos to them – they were excellent) was tough to get to grips with. Once again, more senior players in good form failed to do this.
He works hard, and seems to listen to the manager, so I expect he can be coached through a run of games. Or there may be other options, as suggested by others.
Of course the potential issues highlighted by TTG and others are all things that will need solutions. But I’m gonna stay positive about this young group. They have been surprising people all season so far, why stop now?
Also, Spuds are on an unmaintainably good run and will start dropping points and Manure and West Ham will only overtake us if we let them. Its not like we are City with Pool breathing down out necks grabbing every available point to stay on our heels.
We’ve only gotta beat the other teams fighting for fourth. They are decent outfits, at best.
As CER noted, yesterday we laid out the guest suite for Mr.Cockup. Today, I have refused Mr. Unnecessary Panic entrance to the building.
Measured and insightful report CER of an execrably poor Arsenal performance. We started completely off the pace and second best in every department. In the second half I must say we did well to change the dynamics of the match and a bit more composure in the final third would have set us up for a comeback.
We really miss Tomi. Even though Cedric has been deputizing manfully enough he needs too much of the assistance of Ødegaard and Saka to secure the right flank. Whereas Tomi allows Martin and Saka much more attacking freedom while offering defensive versatility himself. Being two-foooted he also helps overload the midfield by easily drifting inside and letting Ødegaard stretch opposition left side.
Riff-raff like Zaha I wish had played against someone like Lauren patrolling the right back position. He would be picking up fragments of his idiotic grin, along with a completely destroyed self-confidence and any remaining vestiges of professional pride, from the grass after the match.
Well I did not see that performance (if you can call it that) coming. I had a feeling this game could’ve been a banana skin for Arsenal and it was worse than that. When you leave the bananas in the fruit bowl for too long and they go all mouldy and brown, if Arsenal’s performance in South London last night could have been put into a picture, that’s what it would’ve looked like. Just awful from start to finish. None of the intensity we’ve seen in the last few months was there. There was a game at palace about 5 or 6 years ago, I think it was at the height of Wenger insanity, where we also lost 3-0. That day we were a shambles and this game was a carbon copy. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe that was also the game that triggered a shift to a back 3. Given our injuries I would be very surprised if that’s not the plan for the rest of the season. But who will play on the left? Tavares should not be anywhere near the starting 11, I’d rather not play saka there although he is very able in that position, Cedric has played on the left before, but then who would we play on the right with Tomiyasu seemingly injured for all of eternity? I suspect Nuno will start on Saturday again merely because what other choice do we have? If you are attending the Brighton game I strongly suggest you bring your boots because you might get a game. I still think we will just about scrape into 4th but all of a sudden it’s looking a lot less rosier in the Arsenal garden of Eden. Hopefully Arteta can tend to his squad before the brambles and thorns re emerge.
Nice agrarian imagery, 21CG. Although in the first half the performance rather more closely resembled a post apocalyptic wasteland than the garden of Eden,
A very fair and thoroughly objective report, CER though I was surprised that you picked out Xhaka for his well-known and longstanding failings given what was going on around him.
As someone observed (sorry, I forgot who) in another forum mid-match, “When Xhaka is by far your best midfield player, you know how poor Partey and Ødegaard are tonight!” Our recent wins have been graced by masterful performances by those two midfielders but last night they were both shockingly inept. The Norwegian repeatedly had the first touch of a Scottish centre half (they trap the ball five yards!) and the vision and flair of an accountant whilst Partey seemed incapable of passing to anyone not wearing a Palace shirt. Steve T texted me to ask if Partey knew we were playing in yellow last night. Someone else (again I forget who) suggested he may be colour blind – that would at least explain his persistent turnovers.
I would have subbed Ødegaard at half time or certainly by 60 minutes and moved ESR to his MF position. I hope Partey’s thigh problem is a minor strain because we need the old Partey back for the big games coming up. Six weeks out would make a huge dent in our hopes. Having said that, Sambi added zest to that lethargic midfield and now has an opportunity to make his case for a starting slot – his performance was the only positive of the night. Nonetheless our loss of Partey, for however long, may push us back into the double pivot in front of three at the back as Xhaka clearly cannot effectively play the solo pivot that Partey played so effectively until last night and it’s a tall order for someone of Sambi’s limited experience.
Three at the back may also be the MA8’s solution to the terrible blow of KT3 being out for the rest of the season and going under the knife tomorrow for a knee injury sustained playing 180 minutes of meaningless ‘friendlies’ for Scotland when Steve Clarke had plenty of young talent he had said he wanted to blood. That’s bloody irritating, pal! It may also allow MA8 to persist with a shell shocked Tavares who looked a very good prospect early in the season but whose confidence has clearly been badly shaken by his two recent outings – he does need to get some decent performances under his belt. He may be more comfortable and effective (and less of a risk) at LWB rather than as a traditional LB. If he is to be sacrificed, that formation would allow MA8 to use Saka at RWB (with Cedric at LWB – he can play on the left) or LWB and continue to offer his attacking threat.
This game was a repeat of the Everton match. TTG suggested last night that the crowd noise and the cramped stadium may inhibit our players. If that is the case then we have a problem as this young squad in whom we place such hope will not in time have the mettle required to meet the challenge of properly competing for the PL and becoming a force in the CL. I hope last night is simply a result of a typically slow start after the Interlull with too many tired, distracted and unfocused players (frankly such was our lethargic play, I would have tested them all for drugs – it looked as if someone had slipped a Mickey Finn in the team tea pot pre-match) who were overwhelmed by Palace’s vigour, energy and physicality in the first half. Not to mention Palace’s incredible good fortune in taking an early two goal lead. As others have observed their first two goals were a result of two massive strokes of luck. We played far better in the second half but failed to take several excellent opportunities that on another day would have changed the outcome not to mention not having the generosity of the officials deciding to review what certainly looked to me to be a foul on Saka in their box – the referee ignored the umpteenth Zaha collapse in real time and was running away until clearly being told to give a pen by the VAR observer.
Sometimes it isn’t your day. Sometimes the opposition deserve to win. Both those statements apply to last night’s game.
There’s an aphorism that’s something like, ‘it’s not how you fall but how you get up that shows you’re a winner’. Let’s see what we are currently made of.
Top four was always a stretch but it’s still a possibility. Indeed, it is still in our own hands. Go win, Arsenal!
This is one of those moments where one is torn between positivity and reality . On the negative side we’ve lost two of our very best players ( neither of whom is obviously replaceable ) after a morale-sapping defeat where Palace’s performance will be a template for all our future opponents in how to set up against Arsenal . Our other big problem and this contrasts with the Totts is that we lack a regular goal scorer ( in fact the man at the head of our attack has scored twice in open play this season! ) . They have two of the most dangerous goalscorers in Europe despite the fact that overall we are a much more rounded and effective side .
On the plus side we still have a game in hand over the Totts and more of an advantage in relation to our other rivals although this weekend Tottnumb blew up our advantage in goal difference . We’ve shown the ability to shrug off defeats and put runs together this season and the game we lost was to one of the most in-form sides in the Premier League . My mate who has watched them for sixty years thinks this is their best ever side . We have a lot of quality in the side and tough but manageable fixtures . Obviously the NLD will be pivotal .
I love GSD’s laudable positivity and it is part of the DNA of this site that we dwell on the positive . But if I was pressed I think we will find it extremely hard to finish fourth now because our squad is so thin and our goalscoring options are so limited. I will never be more pleased to be proved wrong
Cheers CER.
I’m trying to forget yesterday’s match and look ahead, but a very thin squad has just been stretched further and I think fourth will be very tough to get now.
Basically all TTG just said.
Not good news on Tomi being out for
the next two games.
Thomas a doubt apparently.
I suppose Benjamin at RB, Cedric at
LB is an option with Rob to come in.
I think I just prefer Cedric on the left
in a back 4 to Saka or Xhaka or three at
the back. Though I guess three CBs must
be a tempting option for the Soton game
To TTG’s point, the lack of a goalscorer worries me most. Fourth may turn on goal difference.
I agree with TTG and Ned about the goal scoring.
I think Martinelli would do better than what Laca is offering at this moment and will allow us to play our next four attacking players together. We don’t need a false 9 as we now have a true 10. Most of our counter attacks fizzle out because the focal point moves slower than the fullbacks. I like Laca a lot but we need to be more aggressive and front footed in the opposition third.
Sambi will do a decent job in the Partey role and Nuno I think needs one confidence boosting performance to become reasonable cover again as he was earlier in the season. We will miss KT and Thomas but structurally we can try to compensate for it. We need to make the attacking moves count and have more pressure in the opposition penalty box.
What looks like a reasonably authoritative report on Just Arsenal News suggests we have narrowed our search for a midfielder down to five choices. I imagine this is in place of Xhaka (🙏) . I don’t know if we are to replace Elneny externally .
The choices are Tielemans , Phillips, Douglas Luiz, Neves or Ruiz . I don’t know Ruiz of Napoli but given that choice I’d go for Phillips , then Tielemans then Neves . They all have different attributes and a fit Phillips would be sensational especially if we ship out Xhaka !
While finishing fifth would certainly not be a failure seen from the start of the season or even the midpoint of it, it would feel frustrating now from only a few weeks ago.
You’ve got to watch the big picture, but it would be difficult to take. Hopefully a young squad with a few more canny additions can see it as progress though.
A friend of mine who is friendly with a couple of coaches at Hale End and Colney tells me that they have been blown away by the impact Young left-back Lino Sousa has made already . He is only 17 and joined from the Baggies in January but he has two goals already and is brilliant going forward. I don’t know if he can defend .
He suggests that he might be considered a possible replacement for KT3 although it’s a huge gamble . It might be easier for him if we played three at the back and he was a wing back but that might suit Nuno better too . I think we might see Benny Blanco at right back until Tomi returns with Capitola Rob coming in and Cedric moving 5o left back . Cedric played there at St.Mary’s last season and did really well
Everton’s freaky fall under the weight of Fat Frank was accelerated today.
Thanks for your match report CER. Sounds definitely like a match to miss, as I did. We must now show great resilience overall, and our bench players step up in the fight for fourth.
TTG@22: That group of five midfielders seems to split into two, Partly replacements and Partey complements, and thus Xhaka replacements in a 4-3-3. Kalvin Phillips and Neves would be in the first group; Tielemans, Douglas Luiz and Fabian Ruiz in the latter, although Luiz and Ruiz both play as DMs rather than CMs occasionally.
They are all in their mid-20s, have yet to reach their peaks and would be good additions.
I like Fabian Ruiz a lot. Napoli plays him mostly as an attacking CM. He is left-footed (the only one among the five), so I can see him fitting into Arteta’s preferred 4-3-3 alongside Partey and Ødegaard, but he could also cover for Partey as the single pivot if needed. He also scores three or four goals a season, which would be helpful.
He is also on the fringes of a Spain side that is stacked with talent in his position (Arteta will understand that), so there is talent there. My niggling concern would be how long it might take him to adapt to PL football as he has only played in Italy and Spain, whereas the others are PL-tested. But Ruiz is tall and looks a bit like a bigger and stronger version of Dani Ceballos.
@25
Yeah, Everton are freaky. A cello tie and Benitez aren’t bad managers by any means but the team just gets worse and worse. Could of been us I suppose if we’d got the appointment wrong after Emery went.
Though they are creating a conundrum for me now – do I want to see Fat Frank (hiss,boo) get relegated or would I prefer Burnley and Dyche (just ugh) to go down? Come on Norwich!!
A cello tie?? (Who he? Ed.)
Three year implementation . Sanctions for breaches to be announced in advance of implementation.
Expenses to include agents fees as well as transfers and wages.
Lawyers shift right. Lawyers shift left and then back to the middle. All a bit more effectively than most goalkeepers are able to defend penalties. Financial regulations may be new, but will they be more effective than the goalkeepers, let alone the lawyers??
“Grealish is on the verge of agreeing a major endorsement contract with the renowned fashion house Gucci.”
What will Cynic say?
A cello tie now calling the tune at Real Madrid, OM?
Take a bow Ned 🙂
German newspaper Der Spiegel reports a three year Premier League investigation into potential rule breaking at Manchester City is focused on illegal payments for underage players, inflated sponsorship deals and hidden salary payments made to a former manager.
You’d think that if they didn’t find any evidence, they wouldn’t keep investigating for three years …
“Grealish is on the verge of agreeing a major endorsement contract with the renowned fashion house Gucci.”
What will Cynic say?
He simply joins Calvert-Lewin on the “Not in my Arsenal team” list.
He was there anyway though.
>>>>>>>