Kevin Whitcher
Arsenal’s impressive record at Selhurst Park continued for another season with a not too convincing win at Palace yesterday. Fans hark back to the good old days in comparison with modern soulless bowl stadiums like the E******s, but once arriving at the the ground yesterday, the away fans took 15 minutes to get past the queues generated by body search security checks, given the limited number of entrances. Granted there are delays at Arsenal’s ground when everyone turns up in the last 15 minutes, but at least the queues move with some kind of pace, about eight times quicker than outside the Arthur Wait Stand by my reckoning. I did note that the home fans were not body searched, although this is often par for the course. Maybe away fans go through more stringent checks at Arsenal.
I was stood about two thirds of the way back facing the edge of the six yard box, with a pillar obscuring my view of the Holmesdale Road end penalty spot, and could see just about enough of the ball when it went into the air to make sense of the game. Those in the 20 rows or so behind me would have struggled more when the ball went high. Not that Palace played a Stoke-style game. They certainly relied on power and crosses, but Alan Pardew’s side were not playing the percentage football often seen in Stoke v Arsenal games. Given the state of the pitch, this might have been a better option, and physically, at times, it did look a bit like men against boys comparing the physiques of the two teams.
The playing surface certainly goes a long way to explaining why Arsenal struggled to put together a coherent game, and why the match was relegated to last but one on ‘Match of the Day’ last night. The only doubt about the award of the penalty was whether it was inside or outside the area, and on an afternoon when it felt like Mark Clattenburg favoured the home side a little too often for comfort, at least that key decision went the Gunners’ way. It was early enough in the game for some of those that arrived five minutes before kick off not to have taken their places.
The match then developed some kind of a pattern. Palace getting most of their joy using the flanks and giving the Arsenal full backs a good work out, creating a lot of pressure, but with little in the way of end product. Arsenal weathered it, and scored on one of their rare forays forward just before half-time after the Eagles’ keeper could only parry Danny Welbeck’s shot. Olivier Giroud was following up as a good centre forward should and took his chance. 2-0 at the interval, but one felt that if Palace scored, it would have made life very difficult, as Arsenal had rarely managed to put more than three meaningful passes together.
In the second half, the pressure continued, Oliver Giroud calling it like ‘Fort Alamo’ after the game. Credit to the Arsenal defence and Ospina (we’ll forgive him the moment of madness when he came to claim the ball at the edge of his box and ended up heading it away as he realized he might not catch it inside the area), all of whom did well given the circumstances. The home side created better chances than they had before the interval, largely thanks to the influence of substitute Bolasie before the hour. Arsenal did though, fathom up the odd chance to make it 3-0, the move in which Ozil set up Alexis to fire just wide the best one of the game as far as the Gunners were concerned. Ozil had a looping header which only just went over, a bit of a collectors’ item, and Kieran Gibbs had a decent opportunity to fashion a goal on the break, but indecision cost him.
Wenger’s substitutions did seem to invite the opposition on even more, with Gibbs replacing Welbeck, but his team got away with it, if only just. The closing minutes were frantic. A shot from wide almost caught Ospina out, but his reactions were top drawer. The Palace goal, deep into injury time was a scramble. Penalty area pinball, and difficult to avoid once the ball was not initially cleared. As for the heart attack last gasp effort, from my pew in the corner at the far end of the pitch, the reaction of the crowd made me think it had gone in for a second, and then I saw it was in Ospina’s arms. I thought he had saved it until I caught Match of the Day later on and saw it had come back to him off the post. The away section is probably the worst place to see what the hell is going on in a game when the ball is down the other end. In that moment, Arsenal got lucky, and that could prove very significant by the end of the season in terms of final placings.
Palace will be gutted. They played well, and in all truth, probably deserved the win more than Arsenal. At the end, moments of quality told. Welbeck’s chasing the ball down and robbing the defender to set up the penalty. The same player’s creating the second with an incisive shot which the keeper could only parry. Ultimately, the Gunners defended better than Pardew’s team and that’s what gave them the points. They might have looked very odd with yellow shorts and yellow socks instead of the normal away kit, but a potential banana skin was avoided. It didn’t make for great viewing, a scrappy game on a dreadful surface, but there have been enough matches of this ilk that Arsenal have lost in the past, so let’s be grateful they did the job and secured the three points that were needed to get the season back on track after the disappointment of their previous away outing.
I am now on Twitter@KevinWhitcher01.
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Further Reading
A sequel to Arsènal – The Making of a Modern Superclub and entitled Arsène and Arsenal The Quest to Rediscover Past Glories has been written by myself and co-author Alex Fynn. It takes up the story of the club from the last update of the previous book, and can be bought online here. Use the promo code ‘Gooner’ to get 10% off the publisher’s price of £8.99.
