Gabriel Jesus was Crystal Palace’s nemesis for the second time in a week helping himself to a first-half brace as Arsenal won 5-1 at Selhurst Park to keep up the pressure on title rivals Liverpool and Chelsea.
The Brazilian opened the scoring and then restored the Gunners’ advantage after they were pegged back by Ismaila Sarr before Kai Havertz extended the advantage before the break. While the home side looked threatening in the opening stages of the second half, they were killed off in clinical fashion by Gabriel Martinelli before substitute Declan Rice added a late gloss.
The only downside for Arteta, who yesterday celebrated his fifth anniversary in charge of the Gunners, was the sight of Bukayo Saka limping off on the occasion of his 250th appearance for the club.
All eyes were on Mikel Arteta’s team selection after Gabriel Jesus’ midweek hat-trick, and the Brazilian retained his spot in the starting XI, leading the line while Kai Havertz dropped into midfield. Arteta’s decision paid off almost immediately. After just six minutes, Bukayo Saka’s teasing cross found Gabriel Magalhaes, who had pushed forward for a short free-kick. The loose ball fell to Jesus at the back post, and he calmly slotted home. (GOAL 1-0)
Any hopes of a straightforward afternoon were quickly dashed. Palace’s physicality troubled Arsenal’s defence, and the warning signs appeared early when a poor David Raya pass deep in his own box nearly gifted the visitors a goal. Moments later, Palace capitalised. A swift counter-attack ended with Ismaila Sarr curling a fine effort past a retreating Saliba and a helpless Raya. Arsenal’s defenders will feel they afforded him far too much time and space. (GOAL 1-1)
The Gunners responded quickly. Martinelli won a corner with a dart to the byline and then floated the set-piece to the back post. Thomas Partey controlled it and laid the ball off to Jesus, who rifled a first-time shot into the top corner. With the box packed full of players, it was a stunning finish from a player brimming with confidence. (GOAL 2-1)
Palace continued to press, and Saliba’s shaky afternoon nearly cost Arsenal again when he was dispossessed on the edge of the box. Raya came to the rescue with a sharp save to deny Mateta. The end-to-end action provided drama, but Arsenal suffered a blow when Bukayo Saka pulled up with a hamstring injury during a counter-attack. He was immediately replaced by Leandro Trossard, adding to concerns given Raheem Sterling’s pre-match absence.
Arsenal struck again before the break with another flowing move. Martinelli, now operating on the right, beat his marker and delivered a pinpoint cross to Jesus. The Brazilian’s header hit the post, but Havertz was perfectly positioned to tap in the rebound. (GOAL 3-1)
Palace came out of the traps quickly and Arsenal again had to rely on Raya to dig them out of a hole. The keeper made a sharp save to his right to deny Sarr’s header and followed it up with an impressive double stop – first blocking Mateta’s effort from the edge of the box and then reacting quickly to keep out another header from the alert Sarr.
Sensing danger, Arteta addressed the gaps in midfield by introducing Declan Rice and Riccardo Calafiori for Havertz and Myles Lewis-Skelly. The changes had an immediate impact.
A superb long pass from Gabriel Magalhaes released Leandro Trossard down the left. The Belgian squared for Jesus, whose close-range effort was blocked by Dean Henderson’s quick reactions. The loose ball fell to Rice, who fired a low shot across goal, allowing Martinelli to tap home unmarked. (GOAL 4-1)
With a commanding lead, Arsenal shifted to a more controlled approach, sitting deeper to frustrate Palace and only countering when the home side overcommitted. The tactic worked, silencing the Selhurst Park crowd as time ticked away. In contrast, the visiting fans were in full voice, serenading former Gunners Patrick Vieira and Ian Wright, both with ties to Palace, as well as Arsenal’s Brazilian contingent.
The mood was dampened somewhat by a horrible tackle by Nathaniel Clyne on Calafiori that left the Italian writhing around in agony after rolling his ankle. Thankfully, after treatment, he managed to continue and even contributed to Arsenal’s fifth goal. Receiving the ball in midfield, he laid it off to Rice, who expertly used his marker to curl a beautiful strike past Henderson. (GOAL 5-1)
Arsenal closed out the game with composure, ensuring a well-earned three points that keep the pressure up on Liverpool and Chelsea. Our rivals are in action tomorrow, it’ll be interesting to see how they fare against Everton and Sp*rs respectively. History tells us not to expect any favours from those sides, but let’s see what happens.
Simon the thumb should learn what a red card is, holy shit- calafiori is lucky his ankle isn’t broken- shades of diaby.
Great win, shows what we can do. Hope we keep that form up (and Saka isn’t out).
Rice brought it under control. He looked back to best. Been a bit off lately.
The idea was to bring him on to give us more defensive stability. Not only does he do that, he scores and assists as well,
The sign of a great player is how much more they do than their main job.
True dat
christ, I was fearing the worst when his scream was so loud you could hear it on the telly, and with his history. Thank god he’s ok.
You forgot to subtract 20 decibels, what with him being Italian.
are you saying that in slow motion you could lip-read him actually shouting “mamma mia!!” ?
that’s just lazy stereotyping… and I completely support it.
20 dB is roughly as loud as a mosquito buzz. Apt.
If you can’t see bone then it’s not a red…
* This is what happens when teams like Palace try to play toe to toe with us and don’t just sit in a low block. I actually thought they were pretty good in spells. * It’s encouraging that we put in some goals without Saka. Thought we actually looked quite balanced. Really hope he’s okay though. * Martinelli looked good on the right. Maybe his best performance this season. * I thought the resurrection of Jesus didn’t come until Easter! Looks like a totally different player. We’ll see what things are like in a few games, but what a turnaround.… Read more »
*perhaps it’s not the resurrection, but simply the birth of “Jesus the Goalscorer”
*Rice was incredible, reminded me finally of the player he was last season, the pace, the tenacity and the decisiveness. What a luxury to be able to bring someone like him off the bench.
And Jesus looking inconsolable when Kai scored and when Martinelli prodded home ahead of him… He REALLY wanted more goals #lovetoseeit
Just hope Bukayo is ok
He will be back in a few weeks and celebrating with the ball up his shirt like the rest. Don’t fret.
Idk, Nelson is out for 3 months with an harmstring injury and I just hope we’re not looking at this
If you look at our January a few weeks means more than 10 games.
Nevertheless, what a weird game. Very intense, not really in control but we smashed them as expected.
Let’s give the same treatment to Ipswich
Yep. Credit to Palace for trying to play. But that’s what happens when you play against Arsenal, you get punished.
Problem is when they decide to park against us 🙁
Low key Ipswich supporter here for geographical reasons, and was at Portman Rd yesterday. I doubt that team have a bus to park. COYG!
But they have a Tractor to park
Oh, several!
Hamstring.
A few weeks out, but he’ll be ok – and so will the team.
weird to say about a match we won 5-1 but Raya might be MotM for me. Saved our arses a few times when the scoreline was much tighter, could’ve easily had things turn a different way if not for him.
Lovely to see Martinelli get on the scoresheet too, and Jesus… if both of those guys are about to find their form again then we *fingers crossed, touchwood etc* might really get a good run going now 💪 COYG
Dominant and clinical from Arsenal, now let’s go on a long run of convincing wins.
Beautiful game, great result 👍
Slow & steady, on to the next one.
Onwards and Upwards 🔥
COYG 💪
I’m a cynical bastard, but Jesus’s redemption arc is bringing a tear to my eye. Please keep going Gabi!
We all shouldn’t have denied him in the garden those 3 times
should’ve really gotten a second consecutive hat trick to be honest, missed a complete sitter on the play Martinelli eventually scored… so wanted that for him :/
christmas truly is jesus’ moment, isn’t it? alright don’t mind me…
I was having a sobre evening, but Jesus turned my water into wine, now I’m getting tipsy waiting for the fury fight COYG
Jesus was just waiting for Christmas to
come around. Just what this team badly needed. That was a game during spells, even if we ran away with the goals
Does Raya have his own song yet? I don’t remember hearing one, but sorry if I’m wrong. If not, may I propose one?
To the tune of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’s ‘Fire’:
Raya… da da daaa
He’s our number one… da da daaa da da da
Raya… da da daaa
He’s second to none…
da da daaa da da da
etc.
Is it me or the ref allowed them to crunch on us way to often?
Looking forward to reading the negative comments that will surely still be written by some of you.
25 minutes in and this is the only negative comment so far.
I can’t argue with that but the pre game comments on the team news post were outrageous so I just assumed the worst.
Delighted we won today by the way, and also think our weird 3 red cards at the beginning of the season are the only reason we aren’t top of the league.
Huge mistake to play Havertz in that position etc etc
Arteta just isn’t up to being manager (despite coming 2nd the last two seasons) etc etc
We’ve got to get rid of Jesus, he’s lost it etc etc
Are you Fatgooner in disguise?
Someone here was indeed shouting that in the comments on the lineup post before the match. Aged quite well.
See just below…
6 – 8 = -2!
I see what you did there!
took THIS long and a Saka injury for Mikel to figure out Martinelli needs to play on the right!! he’s right footed ffs, how about a winger that can cross with his strong foot eh? not complex enough for you Arteta?
A fantastic result but a strange game. I couldn’t believe just how open the first half was: both teams had plenty of chances. It could have been any score at the break. Second half much better for us. Arteta took that gamble with Havertz and it paid off, but we looked so much better with Rice in the middle. I liked Martinelli on the right: he had a decent game there. But very worrying about Saka. I hope he’s okay. Jesus MOTM: how did he not get another hat trick? Man City are out of it: it’s a 3-way race… Read more »
“A gutless, cowardly decision.
HAVERTZ IN MIDFIELD DOES NOT WORK!!! He should have been dropped up front in favour of the in-form Jesus
Rice and Merino on the bench and Havertz in midfield? F**k off!!!”
That pre -match comment doesn’t look so good after our 5-1 win…Any defence of that?
God bless you brother, this the idiotic comment I was talking about, this fatfucking gunner is John Terry’s brother. Wankers
We might have won by more if Rice had started.
Stick to the AFTV
How dare you?!
I prefer Lee Gunner!
Lee Gunner is a cunt.
Thank you C.B
Fcuk Fats
Told you to screenshot your stupid comment about the line up. Guess what we won so go eat shit. You don’t belong here.
Well, I disagree. Over the years, Arseblog has been a community where all shades of footballing opinions have been welcome when expressed with respect and without hate. Though his opinions have been radical a few times, Fats has usually been respectful and has called AW a wanker only on rare occasion. So, I guess he belongs.
Agree, where would we be without Fats and some of his fellow negative Nancies to hate on? They lead us to become our better selves by showing us perfect examples of how NOT to be 😉
There is Zero respect when you tell my manager to Fuck off
Don’t want to contribute to a pile on, but your comment before the game was staggeringly childish and over the top – you should really be owning it and saying you got it wrong. Instead of seemingly ignoring that you made the comment at all.
You must be new here
Did you watch the game? Are you seriously saying Havertz at left 8 was vindicated? He did nothing and does nothing in that position. The Kai fanboys on here are the most amusing little tribe.
Winning 5-1 away from is always fantastic but there were lots of moments in the game that was disappointing. Defensively I think we were very poor until Rice came on and I think Saliba and Timber were well off it tonight. But we won 5-1 so I’m very happy and let’s keep our fingers crossed Saks is ok!
Brilliant performances from quite a few players, but especially Raya. He’s the best keeper in the world in my book. Speaking of best in the world, let’s all say a prayer for Saka’s health. We need him, although the squad really stepped up in his absence today. So happy to see our Brazilian forwards smiling. Lot of season left. I choose to keep believing in this squad. We can win the league with a little help from our … foes? When we click, we’re the best team in the league. Just gotta click more often than we have been. Today… Read more »
Good post – agree with it all.
4-1 away against a much-improved Palace side. What way are the anti-Arsenal brigade going to spin this? Dark Arts? Over-reliance on set pieces? Anti-football? @fatgonner were art thou. Guess what we won with Kai scoring. Fat gunner eat that.
5-1!
Sorry mate, was too excited.
Have a look at my post, please,
Arsenal only score from set pieces! (That’s the arsenal with the same goal difference as media darlings Liverpool, by the way)
Did anyone else notice the universal praise that Liverpool got last week for their back to the walls performance with 10 men last week where they managed to rally for a point? Compare that to the reaction to Arsenal’s 10 man performance against City earlier in the season. What the fuck is that all about?!
White noise.
Dont let it get to you, i know its hard, but you have to look at the end game.
Think of Neville, Keane, Carragher, Owen, Scholes, and the rest of that cock-sucker brigade having to congratulate our team, on air, to the whole frikkin’ world, and recognise us, as the best team this season
Champions!!
Calm down son, pity we couldn’t have done the same against Fulham and Everton….short memory dude.
That was good.
If we can beat Ipswich and brentford that’s the half way mark of the season, and out reverse fixtures are easier than the 19 we played ……….eurghhhhhhh god damnit!!! Its the hope that kills you!!!!
F*** it, we will do it!!!! COYG!!!!!
We showed real character today. That wasn’t an easy game at all. Statement win.
very open game, both teams were leaving big gaps all the time. little by little we came on top until the scoreline finished the match, but we could’ve had a rough time. just as important as it was to reckon good things in the last few draws, i think it’s important to be aware of our shortcomings in a match like this, even if we won by a big margin. we’re exposed on breaks and our high press is kinda weird — the first line presses very good but the guys on the second line are very far away from… Read more »
Nice post! In addition, I thought we were very vulnerable to _their_ high press, to the extent that Raya began booting it after Magalhaes whispered something to him at the end of another near disastrous attempt to play out from the back.
Great game. Yet again spreading the goals around the team. Onwards and upwards.
Not so many “We’re out of it” comments today.
Still a long way to go until May of course, but at least the vibe has improved since the Armageddon of Fulham Away.
😉👍
Trossard telling Calafiori to calm down ? What moment ! That looked like Arsenal today “We’re gonna score more goals than you” is back !!!