Ian Mills 
Three Things We Learned after Jesus treble sends Arsenal through to semi-finals
Here's Ian Mills with his Three Things We Learned series after Arsenal beat Palace 3-2 powered by Jesus' hattrick
We recovered from a poor first half as Jesus rose again to book our place in the Carabao Cup Semi Finals.
Here are three things that stood out for me, writes Ian Mills
Jesus is our saviour –
One nil down at the interval and having been a peripheral figure in the first 45 minutes, you would have got sizeable odds on our much-maligned Brazilian striker bagging himself a hat trick with three very well taken goals.
The first came from a magnificent through ball from Martin Odegaard, who entered the fray as a half time substitute, with a great dinked finish over Dean Henderson.
Having then been thwarted by a good save , the second came after another sub, Bukayo Saka, played him in for a confident strike across the Palace goalkeeper and the third, when he latched onto another great pass from Odegaard which allowed him the entirety of the Palace half to run into before cooly slotting past Henderson once more.
The confidence was clearly running through his veins and from our vantage point in the North Bank Lower Tier we responded with his song as the atmosphere turned up several notches.
Arteta got his starting line-up wrong –
Given that we are fighting on four fronts the need for rotation is obvious, however despite talking before the game about his desire to win further trophies for the club, Arteta proceeded to pick a team that simply had too many changes at once.
I get the need to rest one of Saliba or Gabriel, however, to rest both and then ask Timber to play at centre back with Kiwor, flanked by Tierney started a first Arsenal game since the Community Shield of 2023 and Partey at right back felt like an unnecessary risk.
Palace’s first goal came after a bad error from Kiwor. I do not think our Polish international is a bad player however it is clear he needs one of our regular centre backs alongside him to guide him through games.
Both the midfield and attack felt overly rotated too and at half time we were all wondering how and ultimately if, we were going to get back into the game.
Half time substitutes were a must, and it was good to see our Spanish boss acknowledge this as our skipper and our best defender made telling contributions in the second period that helped win the game.
When the semi-finals come around, Arteta must go stronger with his team selection as however difficult an opponent we might face, we have a very real chance of a trophy in this competition and we simply have to grab this opportunity.
Former player returns and of course he scores –
It is fair since Eddie’s summer move to South London he has hardly set the world alight, however fresh from missing at sitter on the South Coast on Sunday, he brought Palace late hope here with a well taken header.
While never fulfilling his potential in a Gunners shirt, he left with our best wishes in the summer. However, he also follows in the footsteps of several former players to have scored against us (some are less revered than others it is fair to say) such as van Persie, Adebayor, Fabregas. Walcott, Eduardo, Campbell, Rocastle, Chapman, Hartson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Bentley, Brady, Stapleton and Kennedy to name but a few.
