EMIRATES STADIUM — Arsenal supporters were desperate to get their Gabriels scoring, the drop off from last season to this handily reflected in the inability of Brazilians Jesus and Martinelli to replicate last season’s prolificacy. Step forward the Brazilian Gabriel you least expected to show the rest how it’s done. The rest followed suit thereafter.
Mikel Arteta wanted a response; he got a gloriously comfortable home win against one of the Premier League’s worst teams, on this form at least. Change is needed at Crystal Palace: likely the manager, possibly the owner, certainly the direction of travel
For all the lack of penetration in open play, Arsenal have been effective from set pieces all season. Before Saturday, no team in the Premier League had scored more goals from dead-ball situations this season. Against Palace, they added beating the first man from corner deliveries to their armoury. Gabriel was the beneficiary, although one was officially noted as an own goal after the event.
Was this much better in general? Answers on a postcard. There was certainly more direct passing between the lines in the first 20 minutes than we’ve seen since before Christmas when control gave way to custardy, gloopy attacking patterns.
They scored more than twice for the first time in a while, which temporarily eases that tension. They kept their first home league clean sheet of the season against a non-promoted side. They spent the last 20 minutes finding ways not to score, but then some things are inevitable and this is Arsenal heritage.
The greater reason for circumspection: the dross they beat. In the away end, something close to mutiny. Palace supporters always make noise, but none of this was good: that weird communal muttering which signals a thousand different people moaning about a dozen different issues at once; louder boos than the home cheers greeting the half-time whistle; sarcastic oles when they completed more than one pass in a row Arsenal’s half.
And then, the final message, banners held up as Palace collapsed late on that detailed the anger at how futile it feels to support a club that seems stuck in suspension, never quite in crisis but always living under clouds. Too much of this season has been spent in an angry haze of apathy, wondering what it even means to support this football team. Why do they do what they do, with their hard-earned and precious time and money and effort, if not to stand up for what they believe in?
At the Emirates, simply an emphatic reiteration of what we already knew: this is a one-man team when Michael Olise isn’t in it. Eberechi Eze is a beautiful footballer, that special mix of grace and guts, rock and blues. He is capable of twisting into danger as an act of pure cheek, tempting opponents to come closer just so he can turn away again and wriggle free.
But on afternoons such as these, when Eze is asked to play the part of four players and does three of them pretty well, he deserves only sympathy and more support from those around him and his manager. To leave Eze so short of options other than “do it yourself”, is an act of desecration. The lingering effect is the opposite of what is intended: Eze looks so good in this team that you realise how much of a dirge surrounds him.
Football supporters are not entitled on the whole, although a minority occasionally give the rest a bad name. They did not trawl across England’s capital on Saturday morning assuming that they would beat Arsenal, nor even with much hope of a point.
But just as football managers have non-negotiables, so too do supporters. Palace fans want a team that tries to score and looks like it might be capable of showing some meagre resistance in midfield.
Their side offered neither. The only time they committed players forward, a cross was spooned into the box, David Raya threw the ball overarm and Arsenal instantly had a clear break on goal. Two goals became three; frustration became misery.
To that we must add: terrible set-piece defending. If your goalkeeper’s route to the ball is being blocked by an opposition player, it’s probably worth one of you noticing that fact before someone in three yards of space scores a goal. Palace don’t score with their own corners but do concede from plenty. Another epitome – you can tell a lot from how well a team does such basic tasks.
Arteta will talk about tangible signs of improvement, of the warming – literal and metaphorical – impact of a break in Dubai and of a corner re-turned. Maybe, but let’s not rush to that conclusion until they have faced a functional football team. Those present should have been left with one question only: what is the point of this Crystal Palace?
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/9hCgmbN
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