Palace Away: Good Saturday

So we got the win we needed against Palace. I stressed this importance of points over performance yesterday and the message seemingly got through to the team. It wasn't fun at times but nevertheless, the result was satisfactory and I personally found Giroud's goal quite tasty.

John Hartson said on Final Score that it was never going to be an easy game for Arsenal. Coincidentally, this comment came during a period of Palace pressure but even so I disagree. We may have lost in the week and a result may have been important but however disrespectful this sounds, Palace are such a poor team that their dearth of quality makes up for any factors which may otherwise make a fixture against them tricky.

As it was, we started the game with sheer dominance. Our opponents completed seventeen passes inside the first ten minutes which for a home side is terrible. We made 118 in the same period which was a real display of the gulf in quality, Palace simply unable to make any mark on the game. Sadly, Mathieu Flamini missed out on his booking as he was forced off after only eight minutes. He picked up a groin problem and may miss our game with Chelsea in midweek although him being Mathieu Flamini, he won't give his injury permission to rule him out for too long.

Serge Gnabry replaced him with Aaron Ramsey dropping back to accommodate the German. We continued to probe but with no real incisiveness. The fatigue of which Wenger spoke was apparent as we failed to break down the Eagles. Credit to them, they made it difficult, showing a lot more relisiance than in previous games. They came close to scoring too with Damian Delaney (I think) inches away from heading into an open net. Half time came though and it was still 0-0.

I fear for the future of Keith Millen in football. Palace's cartaker manager said this of his half time team talk:

"We said to them we need to make sure we start nice and sharp and play off the front and try and get them on the back foot."

In terms of cliches, he performed like a seasoned pro of the game, reeling them off like a manager with many years of experience. However something must be going wrong if you can give such encouragement to your players only to concede a penalty like they did only 114 seconds into the second half. I hope I'm wrong about Keith Millen because he seemed like a nice guy, even if his name does read a little like an inaccurate anagram of Keith Lemon.

The penalty itself continued the Palace tradition of humourous defending. They went for slapstick this week with Guedioura thundering in on Serge Gnabry and felling him like a cartoon character. Not the dry, witty self mockery of previous weeks but I chortled anyway. Arteta dispatched the spot kick confidently and we had the lead that we just about deserved.

The next incident of note was the sending off of the Spaniard. An Arsenal corner was cleared emphatically leaving Arteta chasing Marouane Chamakh for the ball. Chamakh reached it first and leaned into Arteta causing a clash of legs which left both players on the floor. But despite the fact that the incident occurred just inside our half, Aaron Ramsey had a good chance of getting back to cover and Chamakh himself instigating the contact in full view of the referee, Arteta saw red. It's a card which we may well appeal.

Although the card may have been unjustified, Alan Hansen made a good point on MOTD. Arteta was the last man for the Arsenal corner and he was midway through the opposition half. He noted other occasions when this placement of men has hurt us and I think he did have a good point. You can't play someone offside in their own half so all an opponent has to do is wait on the halfway line and run onto a launched ball to get a free run at goal. Even on Football Manager I leave at least one man back so this is an issue to look at for the coaches.

That knocked us back a bit but Palace were unable to capitalise on their man advantage because... well... they're bad. It still didn't feel like a nervy 1-0 because Palace had scored two goals in their last five. Chamakh had his second shot of the season at some point. I don't agree with Robbie Savage often, but his scathing criticism of the Moroccan's antics and abilities were pretty accurate.

Szczesny made two excellent saves, the one from Mile Jedinak's volley brilliant in particular. But as Palace probed for a late goal, we sucker punched them just as Dortmund did to us in the week. Giroud controlled a long pass well and played it to Ramsey before continuing his run. The Welshman ran towards the box and checked back spotting the arriving Giroud. He then played a delightful dinked ball over the top of the defender in front of him which Giroud gobbled up gladly, heading past Speroni and maintaining his excellent scoring record in London.

That sealed the win and the three points. A good result proved crucial as all our rivals won on Saturday and Spurs may well do the same today.

We can now look towards the League Cup game on Tuesday, safe in the knowledge that we still top the Premier League. It's El Cashico today which means one of our rivals will drop points. I'd 'favour' a City win today but a demoralising 0-0 draw wouldn't go amiss either.

Happy Sunday.