Arsenal 5-0 Crystal Palace: Set-pieces prowess propels Gunners to three points

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Arsenal returned to winning ways yesterday with a 5-0 thumping of Crystal Palace.

Oleksandr Zinchenko was back in the side at left-back, Gabriel Jesus came in up front, and the other change was the return of Leandro Trossard to the starting line-up in place of Gabriel Martinelli who learned afterwards was not fully fit so not risked from the off.

With our goalscoring issues of late, an early one felt important, and that’s what we got in the 11th minute. Declan Rice delivered a good corner from the left, Gabriel rose highest to head home. He attacked it brilliantly, and while Roy Hodgson felt afterwards there had been a foul, I think it was just his determination far more than any infringement.

Shortly after a Palace player headed another onto his own bar, Gabriel headed wide from another corner, and the focus on our set-pieces was apparent. Here is the breakdown of our trip to Dubai:

5% shooting practice. 4% team bonding. 1% Sprinkly Salt Meat Wanker.

90% set-piece training.

Apropos of nothing, a list of favourite pieces.

5 – Chess
4 – Of eight
3 – Jigsaw
2 – Reeses
1 – Set

— arseblog (@arseblog) January 20, 2024

Palace had a moment when a poor Raya clearance allowed Lerma to shoot from distance but the Arsenal keeper had it covered. The lead was doubled towards the end of the half when Bukayo Saka’s dangerous delivery from the right dropped at the back post, Gabriel was there to head it goalwards, but it hit the keeper and went in for an own goal. I think morally it’s the Brazilian’s goal, if not officially.

There was a late chance for Trossard before the break, and the second half continued much as the first with Arsenal in control. It was a game of football that was happening before our eyes. I don’t know how better to explain it. Palace weren’t great, Arsenal weren’t brilliant but relatively untroubled, but that 2-0 scoreline is one which has seen games tilt the other way so it was important we added to our tally.

We did so in impressive fashion in the 59th minute. Raya caught a corner, then sent Jesus on his way with an excellent quick throw. Palace were disorganised having sent men up, and when the ball came to Trossard, he stepped inside the defender and finished emphatically to make it 3-0. That was his first goal since scoring against Burnley in November, and the first of his Arsenal career not assisted by Bukayo Saka.

The Belgian and Kai Havertz made way for Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe whose introduction was met with loud cheers. He wasn’t the sub who most caught the eye, obviously, but he was tidy, and it was good to see him get some substantial minutes under his belt. We are going to need this squad to its fullest extent and if this is a little confidence boost for him, or a small step forward, then good.

Further changes came when Declan Rice (hamstring) and Gabriel (knee) were withdrawn so as not to take any risks. At 3-0 the game was over, Palace offered little, although their fans caught the eye with some banners about the ownership and the state of the club. Boardroom stasis, as Arsenal fans will understand all too well, can manifest itself very clearly on the pitch, and that’s what they’re going through right now.

The scoreline was given some late gloss with two goals from Gabriel Martinelli. His end product has been a topic of discussion throughout this season, and understandably so. He scored 15 Premier League goals last time out, and until yesterday only had two to his name. With two quickfire injury time strikes, he doubled his tally, and gave the scoreline the look of an emphatic win.

There were just 102 seconds between Martinelli's two goals, with the Brazilian becoming the first #Arsenal player to score twice after 90+ minutes in a single Premier League game.

— Harvey Downes (@HarveyDownes92) January 20, 2024

The two finishes were basically identical. For the first he was sent through by Eddie Nketiah, before opening up his body to curl home at the far post. The second came from a Jorginho pass, and he just did it again. Why not?! That will hopefully be a confidence boost for him, I think he really needed those goals, and fingers crossed it helps him on the way to a much more productive second half of the season. A nod for Eddie too whose impact off the bench isn’t always what you’d like, but that’s a couple of assists in the last little while, after he provided the pass for Havertz to seal the game against Brighton.

Maybe I’m trying to squeeze every bit of positivity out of this one, but I don’t think that’s unreasonable. If we’ve had to endure a few weeks where we’ve pored over every little thing that’s wrong in search of satisfactory answers, why not go the other way a bit?

Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:

I’m very pleased, clean sheet and five goals, win the game and performance. I had a really good feeling after we left the stadium after Liverpool, the performance was there but the results were not.

Today we were much more efficient in the opponents’ box particularly than the last few games. In the last few games we had moments playing better than today but this is about scoring goals.

And I thought his answer when asked about our proficiency from set-pieces was really good:

If we want to be the best team in the world, you have to be the best team at everything that you do. We can still do better and we’ll continue to work on everything that can make us better.

You certainly can’t fault the ambition. Obviously, it was really important to take all three points yesterday, that was the first objective. The goalscoring thing was an issue, and we put five past the opposition. Defending hasn’t been as solid as we’d like, and we kept a clean sheet. There are a lot of boxes being ticked this morning.

Did we play amazingly well? I don’t think so. It’s clear there’s room for improvement, but I’d very much look at that as a positive this morning. We can do better, but there’s something to be said for sitting here after a 5-0 win and thinking that there’s more to come from this team. But in terms of what we needed to do after the run of results over the previous few weeks, it was job done in a pretty impressive way, all things considered.

Which means we can all enjoy our Sundays. Join us tomorrow for an Arsecast Extra, for now, have a good one folks.

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