Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Report: Arsenal 2-1 Crystal Palace (inc goals)

Arsenal: Szczesny, Debuchy, Koscielny, Chambers, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere, Ramsey, Alexis, Cazorla, Sanogo

Subs: Martinez, Monreal, Coquelin, Rosicky, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Campbell, Giroud

Arsenal left it late to secure a win in the first Premier League game of the season with a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace.

Arsene Wenger started with the same XI that began the Community Shield at Wembley last weekend, with Yaya Sanogo preferred to Olivier Giroud up front, also handing Arsenal Premier League debuts to Calum Chambers, Mathieu Debuchy and Alexis.

As you would expect the home side had most of the ball in the opening part of the game, with new boy Alexis involved, looking to hook up with Debuchy down the right the hand side.

There were some half-hearted penalty appeals when Ramsey ran into Scott Dann in the Palace area but it would have been generous to say the least.

Alexis had his first sight of goal in the 16th minute but fired over from 25 yards, but Arsenal’s passing was wayward with Ramsey, Wilshere and Alexis all guilty of gifting the ball to the opposition.

Yaya Sanogo fired a 27th minute shot wide after good hold-up play, before Jack Wilshere forced Julian Speroni into a save which the keeper pushed around the post for a corner.

The game was all Arsenal but against the run of play the visitors took the lead. Having won a corner after a weird sequence of play when Szczensy was almost caught out and Laurent Koscielny almost gave away a penalty, Palace won a corner.

From the in-swinging set piece former Fulham man Brede Hangeland rose highest to head across goal into the far corner. 0-1. It was interesting to note that Arsenal had no men on the posts when the corner was taken.

Arsenal’s most dangerous looking moments came from set-pieces but Cazorla’s delivery was poor and Palace found it easy to deal with. So, it was something of a surprise when a free kick brought about the Gunners equaliser.

This time Alexis curled the ball into the box from a central position around 40 yards out, and  it was Laurent Koscielny met the ball on the run and flicked a brilliant glancing header into the bottom corner to make it 1-1.

It meant the teams went in level at the break, neither side made a half-time change and Arsenal defended a Palace corner in the opening moments of the second period.

We were forced into a 53rd minute change with Nacho Monreal replacing Kieran Gibbs who looked to tweak a hamstring, and the game continued in the same vein as the first half with Arsenal struggling to break Palace down and Palace time-wasting like bandits.

Jason Puncheon had a couple of efforts on goal, one of which was blocked the other which was saved by Szczesny, while Cazorla picked up Arsenal’s second booking of the game for a foul on Chamakh.

Arsene Wenger made his second change in the 60th minute, throwing on last season’s top goalscorer Olivier Giroud for the ineffective Sanogo. There were then claims for an Arsenal penalty when the ball clearly hit Chamakh on the arm inside the area, but referee Jon Moss was having none of it. Replays showed he clearly leaned into the ball.

Alexis combined well with Cazorla in in the 69th minute but his shot was too weak and easily saved. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain then replaced Jack Wilshere as Arsenal looked to increase the pressure on the visitors.

Ramsey saw a shot easily saved and a Monreal cross fizzed across the box, just missing the run of Giroud who certainly livened things up after coming on. Alexis had a free kick in a good position but whacked it over the bar, and after good build-up play the Chilean overhit his cross with Giroud waiting in the middle.

Again Arsenal’s passing let them down with Cazorla and the Ox finding touch rather than a red shirt. Giroud held off Hangeland well before firing a shot not far beyond the far post from a tight angle, before Palace were reduced to 10 men when Puncheon picked up a second yellow for an 89th minute foul on Monreal.

It was to prove costly, as Arsenal scored almost straight away from a corner. The set-piece came in, was cleared, it went back in again, Koscielny headed it to the back post, Giroud nodded it back across goal and Aaron Ramsey was on hand to poke home from close range. 2-1.

It was the goal to take all three points, even if we had to survive a late corner for Palace, and despite not playing particularly well, the points were all that mattered.

A good start to the season, and something we can certainly build on.

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La Défènse

Phew!

Witoldo

What a tense game, but it’s a real shame that Pulis had to up and resign two days ago. It would have added that little bit of extra to the sweetness of the victory if the camera had cut to that spend-happy neanderthal crumbling up his stupid baseball cap and launching it into the turf after Ramsey’s game-winner.

DC

Just got back from the match, it’s 22.23, and am really pleased we got the three points. Thought Santi was seriously out of sorts. Can’t remember him ever having such a poor game. The crowd was also quite nervy and maybe that worked it way through to the players. We don’t do well with home opening matches! Still definitely three points more than we had at the same stage last year.

COYGs

mastaofthegoonaverse

I thought the crowd were happy and optimistic…….. Until the last 15 minutes and thats normal.

SporadicAli

How do we not have a better song for Kos? “He wants his own song”? He deserves his own hymnbook at this point.

Mooro

Rambo: First Blood.

Edu's Braces

Ramsey’s post match interview – ‘They drew first blood, not me’

(That is my favourite Arseblog comment ever, im off to watch Rambo)

Alexis short shorts

Ramsey in the right place at the right time. Those so called pundits would have been all up in our case if didn’t win.

Rufusstan

To be honest, I though Ramsey had a quiet first 90 minutes 😉

But he can play like that every game if he keeps scoring like that.

Jamie

Never in doubt…

Aedan

That dreamy welsh man eh?

Larry

We were a bit shit but I don’t care! COYG!!!

GU1TAR-D3MON

Welsh Jesus

Gargoyle

Well at least you’ve managed to retain your sharpness from last season, Blogs.

Gooneron

Aaron Ramsey

gar14

Good point!!

Aussie gooner

I bet speroni regrets the time he wasted now.

Sidenote. Anyone saying sanogo is better than giroud really is clueless

Also Chambers is a solid CB

COYG

ARiddlingName

Yep, not too many strikers in the world could have brought the ball down like he did to create the chance (from Koscielny’s header -> Debuchy -> Ramsey).

And how good was Arteta? Seriously, 2 very under-rated players. Although I do agree we need better players in their positions as starters especially against big teams, both of them deserve a lot of appreciation they don’t get.

La Défènse

Praise be to Jesus! (Welsh)

Also, the team looked a lot livelier once AOC came on and Wilshere went off…

Third Plebeian

Very disappointed with Wilshere’s play today. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but he looks to have continued his poor form from last season.

You also get the impression Alexis is still trying to figure out his teammates, but I’m optimistic he will very soon. Quality player. His movement is just sublime.

Very happy with 3 points, though!

WengersNoseHair

Even though, in my opinion, that no.10 position is Wilshere’s best, I thought it would be better if Cazorla started in the middle with The Ox on the left. After all, Cazorla is our best no.10 after Ozil.

Silent Stan's Content Mustache

Welsh Jesus strikes again!!!!
As far as crossing the ball, Debuchy> Sagna
Alexis needs a little bit more time to adapt.

Edu's Braces

Himself and Debuchy love a risky maneuver, Alexis must have given the ball away 10 times but im not complaining, he is electric and always trying something. When he clicks with the team its gona be off the chain. COYG

Rufusstan

Somehow I’d not realized Alexis is such a pitbull.

Good to see the guy tackle back, and tackle back…. he’s definitely brought the Barca philosophy with him of if you lose the ball; keep harrying them until you get it back. Nice signs.

gammhunn

Alexis being an animal in training… Yep. God yes this was a good signing.

Twatticus Flinch

How fab are Chambo’s bugger grips?

The Arsenal Gentleman will be spoiling his tweed over those!

BringBackSeaman

I watched this on a stream, and they subtitled Jamie Carragher when he spoke… comic…

No spine my arse

Up the ARSE!

Bendtner sexy chest

I saw that and pissed myself.:):)

kaius

Jesus is Welsh!

Gooneron

..and a Gooner

Rufusstan

Weird, considering his dad is Dutch (and a Gooner).

Teck

I’ve got Rambo, Alexis and Kos da Boss in my Fantasy Premier League. =)

GGGA

Got Rambo for the goal, Debuchy for the assist, and Chambers as a cheapo defender. Worth every penny.

Robert Ochieng

Got Ramsey as Captain!

remember the invincibles

That wasn’t convincing. But we did the job somehow. Not sure about Sanogo. Didn’t look great

Aros

well neither did Alexis or cazorla, but lets not throw them overboard just yet. I’m not sure he’s the new Henry either, but Wenger trusts him, and so should we. If he isn’t bether come january we can think otherwise but for now i think we should trust Wenger, he does now a thing or two about football

Sarbajit

Know 😛

DialSquareGoon

Let us all sing praises to the Welsh Jesus, for where we would have stalled or faltered seasins ago, he has blessed us with 3 points.

Badaab

Did you hear Paul Scholes on BT? He might be the worst commentator ever (including Owen). He’s more unintelligible than Carragher, and talks like he’s purely there as a Utd supporter (loads of ‘us’ and ‘we’ and ‘Wayne’ nonsense).

GGGA

I have the honour to hear Dixon commenting on my stream. Awesome.

Neneh Cherry

Young Sanogo is more raw than my sushi.

Credit where it’s due though, the lad didn’t lack for endeavour.

VictoriaConcordiaCrescit

Neville: Arsenal need leadership at set pieces.
Neville: Szczesny needs to stop dictating to the defenders
We can win on the pitch, just not with these people.

ARiddlingName

To be fair though, Neville’s been a great pundit, he’s defended Arsenal and Arsene plenty after he’s become a pundit for me to dislike him and regard him with the others like Carragher and Scholes.

Temi

Don Debuchy…what a player. Plenty of positives from today’s game.

malikorama

that wasnt pretty, but it’ll do

Aros

Wo, that was a rather … eh… not as good as hoped performance. But hey, we won ‘n got the 3 points. We’ll be glad for them come may.

Chambers really looks good! Good defending, but I was really impressed by his passingrange, he was bloody tremendos.

And welsh Jesus showed that even when the messiah is a bit on the back foot, he still saves the day!

Badaab

Did enjoy Chambers today, but when he’s given time on the ball going forward, he does this little telltale one footed hop thing before playing the pass. When going backward or sideways, there’s no hop.

Edu's Braces

I noticed that too, slows the game a bit in games like this but the calmness of him is amazing (apart from that ‘fuck this’ tackle where he cleaned the guy out but took the ball PHWOR)

financegooner

Wonder what Louis Van Gahahahaha fans are thinking

Mon Calamari Alliance
Gooner Smurf

Fuck yeah!

Kos

Let’s not be sentimental about players. Wilshere and Cazorla aren’t as good as Fabregas and he’s going to really really strengthen Chelsea.
If Fab was playing we would be passing crisper, faster and with more incisive passing.
Wish he was here we have room

Glad we won that one though we were much the better team

Edu's Braces

The comparison is irrelevant, if you want to say he’s better than Ozil then fire ahead but Wilshere is second behind Mesut and Cazorla will play wide all year. You don’t spend £40m on someone then sign someone else for that exact role the next year. We’ve put our faith in Ozil which is fair enough.

Witoldo

Tough to break down 10 men behind the ball no matter who’s doing the passing, mate. I seem to recall us losing or drawing a game or two when Cesc was pulling the strings, let’s not make him into some kind of Lord of the Pass.

Too Drunk To Be Offside

Well Done Super win, showed grit and kept fighting till the end. Super !! Look at who all were missing super win. Onward and on

Paul

Thumbed up cos of your name!

Badaab

Had I been at the match today, I’d be sending Crystal Palace a bill for the nearly 1/3 of the match in which they wasted time through fake injuries, slowly walking away from throw ins, taking forever to take free kicks, and generally fouling us.
The ref let it happen, too, I think so the fat man could catch his breath. Moss needs to lose some weight, he’s taken over from Phil Dowd as fattest ref in the PL.

Pavan

(Tony Pulis to Chamakh)

Do you know how the Orcs first came to be? They were Elves once, taken by the Dark Lord, tortured and mutilated. A ruined and terrible form of life.

Tony Hall

Understandable we were not at out best. Need two or three more weeks to be at 100% I feel after the world cup. Not convinced with Sanogo yet, Chambers deffo a good buy also Debuchy, Alexis needs time but great cross for first goal …

3 points get in there

oh and hurry back theo

Rufusstan

There are moments with Sanogo that you can see a real football brain buried somewhere inside that baby Giraffe of a body.

Give him time.

Solux

One down 37 to go ………

Goon

I’m tired of listening to commentators’ views on zonal marking.

Mon Calamari Alliance

I’m tired of listening to Katie Price’s views on anal bleaching.

Rufusstan

Can I borrow some of that bleach please, its going to be the only way to burn THAT image out of my head

up4grabs

Zonal marking clearly doesn’t work.

The goals against red bulls, Benfica, Monaco & Palace have all been set pieces.

Lovegood

With no Mertesacker.

gar14

Good point. It at least needs to be revised. We look to be set up differently this year than last year although I could be wrong. No one one either post which I’m i’m not a fan of personally

DR

You remember when Liverpool had a mean defence? One of the best records around, especially from set pieces? They used zonal marking. The issue is not picking up people, which doesn’t happen if you’re organised, but still happens even if you man-mark and it’s bad man marking.

Mikolaj

Koscielny and Chambers were absolutely magnificent today. What a game from Laurent!

Hope Gibbs is okay, he has potential to be no. 1 full-back in England but all these injuries haunt him :/

Witoldo

Hope Koscielny is okay too–he was hobbling around quite a bit when the whistle blew for full time. Until Mertesacker comes back, we’re extremely thin back there.

Witoldo

Thank Bergkamp we were able to grab the three points right at the end. Onward to Turkey!

lollo

cant keep playing sonogo . surely ( hopefully )that’s the last we will see of him till the league cup

lollo

9 thumbs down !!!!!! are you f*****g blind ???? the guy is completely out of his depth !! I give up !

DR

Yeah, he had a bad game. As does everybody, he looked good against City and in the games against Bayern last season, so it’s not an isue of ‘depth’ just an issue of youthful inconsistency. Luckily we have two other guys who can play the role ahead of him.

Crispy

I’m a Sanogo convert. He’s not going away so accept that Wenger will give him game time in games like these against the so called lesser teams.

He’s limited ability wise at the moment but every so often, he does surprise me with a move or a pass and he his a handful.

He will get better.

Injured Gooner South Africa

I personally also like how Sanogo is giving Giroud and Alexis some help whilst they get closer to full fitness. Yet, we cant keep on doing that too often or teams will just line up against us taking that into consideration.

I just hope Sanogo gets going soon though, cause that would lessen the pressure on those guys as well, by chipping in with a few goals.

Goonerblood

A wins a win…. Unlike Man *ehem barf* U
NOT pretty but grinding out results like this is promising!!! 3pnts fells keep it rolling. Ramsey again. My personal fav arsenal player and a legend in the making?! Keep that up Rambo!!!!!!!

spinner

Rambo – we can always rely on you!!!

In the previous article (team line ups), I questioned Sanago to start ahead of a 90% match fit Giroud. I had a few negative comments. I stand by my view that he is still not ready for this level yet.

We are Arsenal Football club not any old football club. Our expectations should be higher than a centre forward who has not scored a goal in his 15 competitive appearances for us.

ANDR

Sometimes you just got to keep the faith. Clearly Wenger sees something in Sanogo and when it comes to judging players Wenger usually makes the right call

Arsepedant

All the stick Sanogo is getting is ridiculous. He’s still a kid, for smeg’s sake – cut him some slack! Was Fabregas perfect in his first year? NO! But you could see the talent. How bad was Ramsey two seasons ago? Look at him now!

Honestly, one game doesn’t make a season and neither does it define a career. Sanogo’s already obviously improved over last year. Let’s see if he improves again by Christmas, not next week.

The expectations people have are just so unrealistic. Give the lad some time.

griff

Result is the key. not how we got there. palace were very solid and will be tough to break down this season. but up front is a big issue for me. if sanogo is the answer you really have to wonder what is the question. his team mates avoid passing to him they dont trust him to continue a move. if we were bold and bought a top striker we would be a real threat. too much to ask?
Chambers did well. debuchy will take a bit of time to settle in.

Paul

That was close!

Nearly behind the spuds after game one!

But not with Ramsey on board!

Ahead of the Spuds and 3 points ahead of Manure!!

COYG!!

Parisian Weetabix

I thought Nacho played really well. Sometimes a solid full back performance goes unnoticed so I just thought I’d say.

cb

Second season, now settled and knows what to expect. Spanish international.

Let’s all get behind him.

Stuart Steele (@Stuart_Ten

Sanogo sadly not good enough for the Arsenal, rooting for him, but just not there..yet. Ozil can’t come back soon enough for me. 3points on the board though, all we need.

Gooner '75

A ram raid. Thank god for welsh jesus.

MTZ

We lacked a bit of pace and creativity today, but Ozil will take care of that once he’s back. The important thing today was winning the game, which we did, so I’m satisfied. The only thing that worries me a bit is that the passing and crossing seemed a bit off at times, from players that should be quite a bit more accurate than they were today. Hopefully we’ll take care of those silly mistakes before Besiktas and Everton.

On holiday

Rusty and unconvincing, a step back since the Community Shield game, but three delicious points. Job done. If that was Chelzea the media would be creaming themselves over Mourinho’, winning when not playing well, mark of champions etc, etc. Zzzzzzzzz.

Man Utd hahahahahahaha.

arsenal

comeback kings

24 goals in 25 games we on all those games mind you..#Welsh Jesus

DAMOBOT

At this point, I will take the points regardless of the display. Wilshire and Alexis are holding on to the ball for far too long. Alexis I can understand as he is new to this league but Wilshire needs to do what Ramsey has done which is go back to the basics

Wenger's Glasses

The first few games is going to be about making points while we’re getting our match sharpness back. Glad we get thru this first game! COYG!!!

And fuck Chamakh.

Tibetan Gooner

Only player I see on the pitch, winning is Ramsey not becoz of his regular match winning last minute goal, no doubt that goal would have make any player who scored a most luckiest man on the pitch but Ramsey as a whole some is definitely a terminater, without a doubt MAN OF THE MATCH!♡♡♡

goonerbynature

I’d have to disagree. The goal was great, but I don’t think Ramsey was our man of the match at all. Maybe Debuchy or Chambers.

On a side note, I thought Monreal was excellent after coming on. I’d happily admit I’m one of his biggest critics, I think he’s patchy and lightweight at times but he was up for the fight today, held his nerve when required.

Virginia Goon

Couldn’t be more correct about monreal, he was superb. Gotta go with Chambers as well for my MOTM, the kid just gets it. He’s class. Great find, and buy from Wenger on that one. Debuchy just makes me comfortable, I know we don’t have to worry much about him. Offensively we were a bit stagnant but were still figuring each other out, and only one game into this marathon of a season. We will be just fine.

winterburn 87

Surely Wenger will realize that Giroud is the only ready made striker we have. .time to spent Boss, please don’t wait till the last minutes. .fuckin killing me.

Steve

Some players have to work on fitness so please give them a break

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