Crystal Palace (0) 0 Arsenal (0) 1
Premier League
Selhurst Park Stadium, Selhurst, London SE25 6PU
Monday, 21st August 2023. Kick-off time: 8.00pm
(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, William Saliba, Thomas Partey; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Gabriel Magalhães, Emile Smith-Rowe, Jakob Kiwior, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fabio Vieira, David Raya, Reiss Nelson, Oleksandr Zinchenko
Scorers: Martin Ødegaard (54 mins, penalty)
Red Cards: Takehiro Tomiyasu
Yellow Cards: Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kai Havertz
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 54%
Referee: David Coote
Assistant Referees: Marc Perry, Wade Smith
Fourth Official: Thomas Bramall
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Jarred Gillett; AVAR Neil Davies
Attendance: 25,189
Some very good news tonight is that Oleksandr Zinchenko is on the bench after recovering from a calf injury; but unfortunately, our new defender Jurrien Timber has suffered a serious knee injury last weekend on his Premier League debut and it is looking like he will be out of the first team for around seven months, which is extremely bad news for both club and player. However, Takehiro Tomiyasu will deputise for the injured Dutchman, and other than this tragic injury, everyone else in the squad appears to be okay, thankfully.
After a minute’s applause for the lives of Trevor Francis and former Millwall chairman John Berylson, Arsenal started the proceedings here at Selhurst Park tonight. In this electric atmosphere, within a minute of the kick-off, the home side tried to get in behind us down the right wing, but Takehiro Tomiyasu halted their advance with a strong tackle. We squandered an early opportunity to score when Gabriel Martinelli was found in acres of space on the left-hand side of the penalty area, but instead of shooting first time, he cut inside right into defensive traffic and saw his shot blocked. We are having the best of the game in the early stages with strong possession and pinpoint passing, all of which is serving to break down the home side. Another one of our forward balls went into the direction of Eddie Nketiah in the box but he fouled his marker sadly and gave away a free-kick to the home side. It is good to see that Thomas Partey is operating more in a midfield role, leaving a solid back three of Ben White, William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu when we advance, which is comforting to see. After some pressure from the home side, we broke at speed, in a smash’n’grab raid, but Eddie Nketiah could not get a ball over to Gabriel Martinelli out on the left wing. He then set up Bukayo Saka in the penalty area but his effort was blocked and pushed behind by the Palace goalkeeper. At the other end of the pitch, Aaron Ramsdale dived to save a shot from range from Eberechi Eze, and we broke out with Takehiro Tomiyasu’s attacking run winning us another corner. Gabriel Martinelli’s first corner was nodded behind again by Palace and his second was headed away by a home defender, and again Palace broke out and ran for our goal, but Joel Ward over-hit a cross from the right wing, and they came back through Eberechi Eze, but his shot went way off range. Arsenal are being very patient tonight here in SE25, carefully building up play, attempting to break down Palace across the pitch in different places. We had a penalty appeal denied by the refereee when Joel Ward brought down Eddie Nketiah out on the left wing, and a minute or so later, Jordan Ayew received the first yellow card of the evening when he fouled Kai Havertz badly. After a Thomas Partey header going wide of the Palace goal following a Martin Ødegaard free-kick, Eddie Nketiah hit the post when he turned Joachim Anderson outside the penalty area, managed to hold off another Palace defender, and watched his toe-poke hit the inside of the far post and out into play again. So close. The home side had a penalty appeal turned down when William Saliba brought down Jordan Ayew in our penalty area, but neither the referee nor VAR could see an infringement fortunately. Nine minutes before the break, Declan Rice found Eddie Nketiah with a superb ball; he had just goalkeeper Sam Johnstone to beat and chipped the ball over both the ’keeper and the crossbar as well. Minutes later, a superb Bukayo Saka shot flew over the bar, and our captain tested Sam Johnstone with a strong shot from twenty-five yards, but the Palace goalie pushed the ball over the bar for an Arsenal corner, which went nowhere sadly, despite some pressure from our forwards on the Palace defenders in the six-yard box. Despite some frenetic play in the two minutes injury time, the first half finished honours even.
Crystal Palace kicked off the second half, and with no half-time changes from Mikel Arteta, we carried on where we left off, personnel-wise. We had a let-off when, shortly after the restart, a clever flick by Jeffrey Schlupp found Tyrick Mitchell but his ball that passed safely between Aaron Ramsdale and the Araenal defence failed to find a Palace forward, thankfully. Minutes later, a great shot by Bukayo Saka went straight into the arms of Sam Johnstone. After fifty-two minutes, a clever through ball by Gabriel Martinelli found Eddie Nketiah, who was brought down by Sam Johnstone; despite some queries from the VAR team, a penalty was awarded to us, and our captain made no mistake from the penalty spot with a sweet left-footed strike into the bottom corner of the net, sending Sam Johnstone the wrong way. After the restart, Palace came back at us, and a dangerous Jordan Ayew shot went into the side netting on the left side of Aaron Ramsdale’s post. The home side had a couple of good chances following the Jordan Ayew shot (mainly from the boot of Eberechi Eze), but nothing has come of their efforts. Ridiculously, referee David Coote booked Takehiro Tomiyasu for time wasting in taking a throw-in, and just after the hour, Bukayo Saka set up Thomas Partey on the edge of the penalty area; he hit the target, but Sam Johnstone stuck out a hand and pushed the ball away. Kai Havertz was unlucky in not scoring when his left-footed shot from the left-hand side of the penalty area flashed across the goal. We went down to ten men when Takehiro Tomiyasu was sent off for a second bookable offence, which was absolutely criminal, to say the least. Gabriel Martinelli was replaced by Gabriel after sixty-eight minutes in order to reshuffle the pack after the sending off, and there was controversy in our penalty area when it looked like the home side was going to be awarded a penalty, but thankfully the VAR team confirmed to referee David Coote that it was not, thankfully. We are now digging in, and with ten minutes of the match remaining, Jorginho replaced Eddie Nketiah for the remainder of the game. Kai Havertz has had a couple of good chances that were extremely unfortunate not to go into the Palace net, but the opposition keep coming forward to test our defence as we are a man down owing to the unjust sending off of Takehiro Tomiyasu earlier. Time after time, the home side are throwing everything including the kitchen sink at our defence, and time after time, we are repelling their efforts to score. With two minutes of the match remaining, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jakub Kiwior are on for our captain Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka, and we are holding onto the ball well now, despite the announcement of seven minutes injury time. Kai Havertz was caught badly in the Palace half and Cheick Doucoure was booked for his trouble, and a couple of minutes later, Kai Havertz himself was booked by referee David Coote for kicking the ball away. In the last two minutes of injury time, despite some incredible constant pressure by the Palace strikers, we managed to hold them out to take a hard-fought victory here at Selhurst Park tonight.
Two matches, two victories, an excellent way to start the season. Make no mistake about it, we had to dig deep after the dismissal of Takehiro Tomiyasu, but we stuck together, played our game plan and ended up taking maximum points. A well deserved win, even though Palace made us work really hard for it. Every man played their part, every man stuck to the game plan, and our goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale was utterly immense, as was our inspirational captain tonight too. Kai Havertz and Eddie Nketiah were utter nuisances to the Palace defence, and Thomas Partey just oozed class as well. All in all, a fantastic victory, one that takes us to third place in the Premiership tonight. Well done, chaps.
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Fulham at the Emirates on Saturday, 26th August at 3.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 