Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla were delighted to have escape Selhurst Park with three points following Saturday afternoon’s tough test against a physical and motivated Crystal Palace.
The Gunners stole into a 2-0 first half lead thanks to Santi’s early penalty and Olivier Giroud’s close range finish but struggled to maintain the momentum in the final stages as they endured an aerial bombardment from Alan Pardew’s men.
Speaking to Arsenal Player after the game, Mertesacker admitted his team mates had been lucky when Glenn Murray hit the post with the game’s final action.
“At the end they tried to put us some pressure and get some strikers on. They nearly scored the equaliser so we were a bit lucky at the end. Overall, we are absolutely delighted with the three points and we move on.
“They have pace up front and good headers of the ball too. They nearly scored in the first half and at the end they had quite a few chances.
“Sometimes you lose games, especially at the end. We were lucky today but that was a bit of a warning for us not to switch off too early. As I said, I’m absolutely delighted to take the three points.”
Santi Cazorla was similarly enthused by a victory that required real team spirit throughout the game.
“It was a very good three points for us,” the Spaniard told Arsenal Player. “It was a difficult game on a very difficult pitch. The team fought together and we need to play the same in the next game.
“In these games it’s always very important to focus, because there are a lot of long balls, free-kicks and set-pieces. We only had problems [with that] in the last two or three minutes but the team today defended very well.”
If you’re looking for a breakdown of the weekend’s victory, @7amkickoff’s latest By The Numbers piece by is a must read.
Great victory, we have struggled away from home in the past, Palace were very energetic, shame we didn’t close it out rather than suffering in the last few minutes.
It was a very important one as well! Considering the other teams lost points apart from Liverpool -I prefered if they drew obviously- Soooo happy and very optimistic COYG!
No shame in almost, but not losing a lead in the final minute of injury time.
Great win. Didnt watch the game.
Pardew’s still a whinny twat! And he’s only as good as the Palace pitch…
Literally head and shoulders above the competition.
“It was a difficult game on a very difficult pitch.”
That sums it up. Teams now know when the grow potatoes on their field, they have 80% chance of frustrating Arsenal’s beautiful game.
I wonder if we can be more prepared to resort to a more medium/long ball game whenever the pitches are so bad. Obviously we moved away from the tiki taka, but I feel like having Arteta in the back of the midfield was really helpful earlier in the season when we played a few more long balls in whenever teams tried to press us up high. We haven’t done it since he came back since we currently don’t have someone composed enough to do that from deep except Santi. Wilshere has shown an ambition to do that in the past… Read more »
Good practise for next Monday, that was. Whilst handing out a 5-0 thrashing to United at the Glazerdome would be rather nice, a 2-1 mugging to avenge their appalling pickpocketing at the Grove earlier this season would also be enjoyable.
Our players need to learn how to be ruthless with smaller teams. We have to be a team that leaves opposition nothing we can take from them. I mean applying relentless pressure. When we try to protect our lead, we don’t look like a team that is well in place, that evenly closes spaces in our half. We tend to cluster deep in our half nervously. But in terms of results lately, I an not complaining. There will always be the nagging regret not to be chasing for the title. Hope we go very far in champion league to compensate.
March ’98 saw us 10 points behind the Glazerhawks before winning the title.
It’s February, we’re 12 points adrift with Chelsea to play at home. It might be a tad optimistic but if we go on a run then we *will* be chasing for the title by the time Maureen tries to park his bus at the Grove…
Since ’01-’02, the Premier League champs have averaged 88 pts per season with a standard deviation of roughly 4 pts. Based on Chelsea’s pts/game (2.31), they’re projected to finish with 87-88 pts. If we win out we would finish with 84 pts.
I think we need to target 26 pts from the remaining 12 games to guarantee top 4. Anything less and we’ll likely need help from other teams.
I’m sorry to say that I think talk of challenging for a title are fanciful.
Wenger just said we need 72 points to qualify. Boom! Called it 😉
This win could turn out to be the most vital 3 points come end of the season.
Or, more appropriately, the combination of results this weekend.
Exactly what I meant to say. All the results around us went our way. I am glad Liverpool won because I expect them to drop points against City. We must beat Everton. That will give us 5 points minimum cushion over Lpool. I feel they will be our main challengers for 3rd place.
I hope we demolish manure at old toilet
Beautifully expressed, succinct too…
has Arsene considered growing a maize field for the boys to train on especially for away matches again these teams…… just saying!
against! this site would do well with an edit button or something
Lovely turn of phrase, succinct too!
This isn’t the vital victory. The vital victory is the next game in the league. We have grabbed third but we must now capitalise on it. We have done this before (with results favouring us) only to throw it away again next game. The race is still tight with teams below us still a hair’s breath away. We need to increase the gap. Good opportunities with Spurs and Liverpool both in difficult games. We must maintain distance with United and Soton and stay close to City. We should be aiming to close the gap to second at present. Any shock… Read more »
Mind the gap?