Crystal Palace lost 5-1 at home to Arsenal on Saturday night in a crowd-pleasing result.
Mikel Arteta's team took advantage of the chances that the hosts wasted. The two clubs exchanged three goals in the first 15 minutes, with Gabriel Jesus scoring a brace after that. hat-trick in midweek against the same opponentsbefore Kai Havertz put the Gunners 3-1 up at half-time.
Palace continued to create and waste chances until Gabriel Martinelli's interception in the 60th minute ended what had been an exciting contest. Declan Rice made it 5-1 in the closing stages to take Arsenal into third place at the sharp end of the game. Premier League table.
How the game played out
Arsenal had to wait until the 54th minute Carabao Cup quarter-final on Wednesday at the Emirates Stadium to find the net against Crystal Palace. Jesus fired the Gunners ahead after six minutes at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Ismaila Sarr with cracks palace equalized in the 11th minute, capping off a fluid passing sequence that began deep inside their own half. The Senegalese was the only Palace player to find the back of the net, but Oliver Glasner's side edged past Arsenal. The hosts, especially Jean-Philippe Mateta, showed no clinical advantage that Jesus had suddenly rediscovered.
Arsenal's resurgent Brazilian had scored one Premier League goal in the entirety of 2024, but scored his second of the evening in the first half. For the fifth time this week, Jesus beat Dean Henderson, blasting home a loose ball after a corner was broken inside the near post.
Jesus had not completely dismissed his final issues. The number nine hit the post with a header at the top of the first half Kai Havertz was about to end. When presented with an opening from point-blank range on the hour mark, Jesus was beaten by Henderson only for another team-mate – in this case Gabriel Martinelli – to clear the loose ball.
Forward Arsenal extended their lead in the second half, Palace had found time to miss two more chances, with Sarri nodding a pair of close-range headers into David Raya's welcoming gloves.
Rice added an undeserved layer of brilliance to the scoreline in the 85th minute, bending a curling effort into the far corner to seal a win that keeps Arsenal within touching distance of Chelsea and Liverpool.
Check out the Crystal Palace vs Arsenal player ratings here
Despite the convincing result and reducing the gap at the top of the Premier League, Saturday's result was tinged with a lot of negativity. mostly, Bukayo Saka lasted only 25 minutes.
The 23-year-old has been Arsenal's best player and creator. Saka didn't make it on the half-hour mark, but still found time to move in the cross that led to Jesus' opening.
While Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard had their moments in his absence at Selhurst Park, it will be a much tougher test for the wrong-backs if they are tasked with leading a front line without Saka for every stable period of time.
If only Jesus could play Crystal Palace every week. The Brazilian forward, a figure whose effort always outstrips his end product, has scored five goals in two games against the Eagles. Over the last four days, Jesus has scored 20% of his career goals for Arsenal.
Roaming around the pockets of uncertainty that existed between Palace's back three, Jesus could have strengthened his personal drive at Selhurst Park. For once, though, Arsenal's number nine will be remembered for his goals rather than his conspicuous misses.
However, the weight of expectation will return as soon as it draws another blank. As Jesus noted before the game: “The pressure will always be there to score.”
“I'm sure both sides will change a few things,” warned Arteta ahead of Arsenal's second clash with Palace in the space of four days. However, there were several motifs running through both legs of this double head.
Namely, the trouble caused by a simple bump in front of Mateta. The burly Frenchman fired Palace in front of the Emirates on Wednesday night after teasing Jakub Kiwior off the ball. Arteta could have chalked up the blunder to the absence of his first-choice centre-back duo, but William Saliba and Gabriel were both dropped by a simple and worrying approach.
However, it would be as unfair as the 5-1 scoreline to suggest that Palace played exclusively in the clouds.
Oliver Glasner is not to be underestimated. The sharp winner of the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt was said to be four games away from his loss just two months ago. Now his Palace side have opened up a four-point cushion above the drop zone and – despite back-to-back defeats – gave plenty of encouraging signs against Arsenal.
In the midweek cup defeat, Glasner had replicated Monaco's corner-back formation to limit Arsenal's power from set-pieces. The return of Gabriel undermined that approach on Saturday, but the Eagles managed to beat Arsenal's pressure for the majority of the reverse 5-1.
Martin Odegaard, who struggled in his second straight league start, was repeatedly caught in two minds when stepping forward to press. The Norwegian captain led his side's first wave of pressure, but was repeatedly sidestepped by daring and intricate passing, allowing the hosts to yawn into gaps in space to advance.
The fact that Rice started the contest on the bench did not help Arsenal's poor efforts out of possession. Thomas Partey spent most of the match spinning around in circles like an old, tattered suitcase on an airport baggage carousel, constantly spinning out of every red and blue shirt.
Rice finished the contest with a brace, but his most notable involvement came within two minutes of his introduction in the second half. The versatile midfielder was first on hand to recover from Jesus' saved effort before expertly teeing up Martinelli.