Misfiring Arsenal are held by Palace
Misfiring Arsenal draw a blank
YOU can’t celebrate if you don’t score. Perhaps Arsenal and Crystal Palace are on to something.
In a week when players have been pilloried for breaking Covid protocols by continuing to embrace, these teams found an effective way of avoiding controversy.
Here’s hoping it doesn’t catch on. As goalless draws go it was relatively entertaining, and by the end neither Mikel Arteta nor Roy Hodgson would have been too disappointed with a point. But Palace striker Christian Benteke, who missed three glorious chances, may feel differently.
The form of both sides could not have been more contrasting. Arsenal, off the back of four consecutive wins were in the ascendancy, slowly overcoming the dreadful start to the season that saw them flirt with the relegation zone.
Palace, after just one victory in seven, approached this in worrying form, dropping to 13th in the table. But they were the brighter team initially.
Eberechi Eze, who started despite his protocol-breaking trip to QPR last Saturday, was lively while Wilfried Zaha seemed intent on making Arsenal pay for not signing him two summers ago.
Eze fired a free-kick from an inviting position over the bar before Benteke misfired from seven yards out.
Arsenal were lethargic and passive. All they had to show was a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang strike that stung the hands of Vicente Guaita and David Luiz’s back post header that the Palace keeper comfortably claimed.
James Tomkins gave Arsenal a fright six minutes before the break, glancing a header from Eze’s free-kick on to Bernd Leno’s bar. James McArthur’s follow-up was blocked.
The Gunners were let off the hook again before half-time, Leno clawing out Benteke’s header from Tyrick Mitchell’s cross before the keeper stopped Zaha’s rebound.
Inside the first 60 seconds of the second half, Arsenal showed more ambition than during the entire first period as Hector Bellerin went close to scoring. Guaita then denied Bukayo Saka before Rob Holding headed the resultant corner narrowly wide.
Alexandre Lacazette rippled the side netting in the 55th minute as the Gunners continued to venture forward, though the effort would have gone to VAR as the assistant raised his flag.
With the pace of Zaha, Eze and Andros Townsend, Palace were always going to offer a threat on the counter. But Benteke and Townsend wasted promising opportunities to break with heavy touches.
Arteta threw the dice in the 69th minute by introducing marquee summer signing Thomas Partey, returning from injury, in place of Dani Ceballos. But it was Palace who squandered the next opportunity, Benteke wasting an excellent headed chance.
‘It was a hard-working performance, we defended well and maybe with a bit more composure we could have scored,’ said Hodgson. ‘But we were playing a team in excellent form and we go away with a deserved 0-0.’
Arteta, whose side missed the injured Kieran Tierney, said: ‘We created a lot of situations against the low block but lacked the final quality. We probably didn’t do enough to win.
‘We are playing a lot of games and you can see we are paying a price because of fatigue.’