{"id":12140,"date":"2025-10-27T11:07:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T11:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12140"},"modified":"2025-10-28T18:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:32:07","slug":"an-eze-win-but-not-an-easy-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12140","title":{"rendered":"An Eze Win But Not An Easy One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal consolidated their hold on top spot with a hard won 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Ashburton Grove yesterday. As so often happens the defining moment of the match involved a player who had worn the colours of the opposition when we last met, Eberechi Eze scoring a spectacular scissor volley a few minutes before halftime to settle the game. That must have been a bitter pill for Palace fans to swallow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May I begin with an apology. I have mislaid my contributions schedule and didn\u2019t produce the report as quickly as I would normally wish to do. This report will be a little more reflective rather than a blow by blow account and will also examine the contrasting opinions that people have expressed to me about the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal made two changes from the team that put Atletico to the sword on Tuesday night with Trossard replacing Martinelli and Calafiori regaining his place at left back from MLS. Palace had amazingly lost to the fifth best team in Cyprus on Thursday evening and had started a very strong team in that game. They were at full strength for this one too and set up with their customary three men at the back and two raiding wing backs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I watched the game on television, Sky attempting to show all of the games kicking off at 2pm and not giving this one the main event treatment. I found the first half a trifle tedious notwithstanding the fact that Palace are an extremely difficult side to play against but the game seemed attritional and we weren\u2019t able to make any serious headway against a very solid Palace side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of sloppy passes by Zubimendi were uncharacteristic and put us under pressure and Saliba failed to shepherd Mateta to safety resulting in attacks that saw Raya save from Sarr who was then ruled offside and then our defence blocked a speculative drive. We didn\u2019t generate a goal attempt ourselves until after the half hour when Trossard saw a low effort well saved by Henderson but we did not have long to wait for the defining moment of the match. Pino gave away an unnecessary free kick on the right about thirty five yards from goal. Rice floated it in, Lacroix headed it away from Gabriel to the edge of the area. It came at an awkward height to Eze who executed an acrobatic scissor volley getting over the ball and smashing it into the right hand corner. His celebration was understandably subdued but the Arsenal players mobbed him enthusiastically, realising what a significant strike this was likely to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 1 Palace 0 – Eze <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you are a counter-attacking team like Palace falling behind changes their perspective on the game. They set up with a low block, a five man defence and looked to catch Arsenal on the break. Now they faced a rejuvenated Arsenal side, a noisier crowd and had to find a way to get a grip on a match that had taken a negative turn as far as they  were concerned. Despite a subdued Arsenal performance several players stood out. Timber was continually pouring forward to help Saka and on one occasion to retain possession against four Palace players. He was also his usual conscientious self from a defensive point of view. He is a quite outstanding player. Rice was industrious and able to  vary play with long passes to the wing, Eze looked increasingly dangerous although the absence of \u00d8degaard robs us of a hugely effective midfield link man. Gy\u00f6keres worked extraordinarily hard but was often isolated from colleagues.  At the back Gabriel was his usual imperious self. The goal came at a very good time and we led a tight game at halftime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half-time Arsenal 1 Palace 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the teams re-emerged Mosquera had replaced Saliba and Arsenal were much more assertive and took the game to Palace earning their first corners of the match. Gabriel thumped the bar with a header and Trossard showed some tricky footwork down the left in one of his more lively performances. We couldn\u2019t add a second goal and eventually Palace who had brought Nketiah on to support Mateta carried  more threat but we managed the game pretty well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was disturbing to see Saka and Rice removed. Saka had seemed under the weather from the start but occupied two Palace defenders while  he was  on. Martinelli who came in on the right had suffered a pre- match knock apparently and Rice was replaced by Merino with what appeared to be a combination of calf and Achilles problems. Let us hopes these knocks aren\u2019t significant .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game ended with Palace applying some pressure and Arsenal looking to find Gy\u00f6keres on breakaways. It gave the impression that we were holding on to a certain extent but I preferred to view it as Arsenal shutting down the Palace attack in what was a natural consequence of the rhythm of a tight game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Time – Arsenal 1 Palace 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the match it was interesting to hear from several people who were at the game who regarded it as an enthralling encounter and those who had watched on television where it came across as a much flatter, dour affair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would have nominated Gabriel as Man of the Match but Timber, Rice and Trossard did well, Eze improved as the  game went on and Gy\u00f6keres toiled manfully upfront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing that heartened me was that Eddie Nketiah was given a fine welcome by Arsenal fans when he came on and Eze was similarly applauded by Palace fans when he was substituted near the end. Contrast this with the recent mean-spirited response of West Ham fans to Declan Rice who led that benighted club to their only success in aeons and behaved impeccably when leaving the club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was another excellent weekend. We did not expect our nearest challengers to be Sunderland and it was heartening to see C130y and Liverpool fall to defeats, after Chelsea had capitulated to the Mackems. The first quarter of the season has gone very well. Fingers crossed we can continue to play with the control we have exhibited so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apologies to end this report on a sad note but I was so sorry to learn of  the death of Steve Ashford \u2018The Highbury Spy\u2019, a long-time Gooner contributor and a controversial one. Steve had been fighting leukaemia for a while and dragged himself to games for a few months after his treatment. I often disagreed with him but never doubted his love for the club. Rest in Peace, mate! Let us hope we can win the title for him. A lot of us in this bar will drink to that! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal consolidated their hold on top spot with a hard won 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Ashburton Grove yesterday. As so often happens the defining moment of the match involved a player who had worn the colours of the opposition when we last met, Eberechi Eze scoring a spectacular scissor volley a few minutes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12140"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12145,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140\/revisions\/12145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}