RARE GEM ZAHA DAZZLES
Direct dangerman causes panic in the Arsenal ranks
THEY are rare, players like Wilfried Zaha. It is because he is so direct that makes him so dangerous.
English football does not necessarily encourage this type of play and at times Zaha will frustrate people by making the wrong decisions. But the Crystal Palace winger carries a consistent and almost unique threat and can be exhilarating when in full flow.
Here at Selhurst Park, Zaha’s late contribution was typical of his afternoon and enough to overcome the odds and indeed the fall- out from some disastrous refereeing to earn Roy Hodgson’s team a point and ensure Arsenal’s sequence of victories ended on 11.
Up by a goal at half-time after a 45th-minute penalty from Luka Milivojevic, Palace were set back on their heels early in the second period first by a bullet free-kick from the left foot of Granit Xhaka and then by a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang goal that should never have stood.
The handball from Alexandre Lacazette in the build-up to the second goal was as clear as day and how referee Martin Atkinson and his assistants missed it we will never know. It was clearly visible from the back of the Main Stand.
So Palace were up against it when Zaha was given possession down the right with less than 10 minutes to go. But Zaha knew that if he ran at Xhaka he would unsettle him and maybe even panic him. You will never worry someone with a square pass but you will if you get on your toes and as Zaha drew the challenge from the Arsenal player he went to ground and Atkinson was always going to give the penalty from which Milivojevic scored.
There was not a huge amount of contact from Xhaka and Zaha could have tried to stay upright. But that does not mean it was not a penalty. Things work differently at full pace and Xhaka’s movement towards his opponent was enough to unbalance him and the penalty was the right call.
Arsenal manager Unai Emery was not moved to complain and he said: ‘We need to be calmer. I respect the referee’s decision. We need to not concede chances for other teams to have penalties.
‘We need more control with the ball, more control keeping the opposition so far from our box. We cannot do that at the moment.’
It was an excellent and very fair assessment from the Arsenal coach. It is unlikely his predecessor Arsene Wenger would have been so objective about it.
But Emery had clearly seen what we had seen, namely that his team had lost the ball carelessly in the Palace half and brought trouble upon themselves. This Arsenal team is much improved but still there are lessons to be learned.
Certainly the game had appeared to be heading their way after an uncertain start. A goal down to a penalty awarded after Shkodran Mustafi felled Cheikhou Kouyate seconds before the end of the first half, Arsenal had taken a grip of the game before we had even reached the hour mark.
Xhaka’s free-kick was one to remember. With a foul conceded right on the angle of the penalty area on the right side, it seemed Xhaka would deliver the ball towards the far post where the big men were scrambling for possession. That would have been the conventional thing to do.
Instead the Swiss international drove his left instep through the ball with everything he had.
The free-kick flew across Wayne Hennessey and all the Palace goalkeeper could do was touch it against the inside of his right-hand post and into the net.
Soon things got better. Another set piece from the right was played into the box in more conventional fashion and Atkinson failed to notice Lacazette reaching up to tip the ball on like he was standing in a rugby union line-out. Aubameyang bundled a scruffy goal over the line by about an inch at the far post.
Palace were aghast and quite rightly. Even Lacazette looked a little embarrassed.
‘I think everybody would have sympathy with us there,’ said Hodgson afterwards. ‘It was unfortunate and I think it was tremendous the way the players came back.’
Hodgson was right and there would appear to be no lack of spirit at Palace. Arsenal’s substitutions were notable only for the way Mesut Ozil threw his gloves down in complaint but those made by Hodgson contributed to their comeback.
Max Meyer struck the angle of post and bar and then Alexander Sorloth drove forwards to feed
Zaha in the run-up to the second penalty. A word here also for captain Milivojevic. Having missed a penalty at Everton a week earlier, he showed character to take two here and they were both excellent.
To Zaha’s silk, the Serb added the requisite steel.