Crystal Palace vs Arsenal: Instant Reaction

A trip to Selhurst Park under the lights is never easy

Straight to it.

Headline 📰: Just win baby

I would love to have had a better performance to write about here but the crazy red card made it so this was much more nervy than it looked like it was shaping up to be.

Arsenal tried the same system that they debuted against Forest and it looked to be working better having the same control and excellent pressing but this time matched with better play around the box.

Then there was a soft yellow for time wasting that was more of a team yellow, than a yellow for the player. That was followed a few minutes later by a phantom grab that was at best a soft foul and really not a yellow card offense in my book (Jordan Ayew got away with a worse foul only about 10 minutes earlier without a second yellow).

That red card absolutely changed the game.

Before the sending off Arsenal were well in control they had the edge in final third possession (192 to 64) and where pressing really well while keeping the ball away from Crystal Palace enticing them to come at them from their low block and open space to attack.

That all changed and it made things a little dicey. Maybe too dicey, it was only one player and it shouldn’t have made it so Arsenal couldn’t keep the ball but that was how they dealt with it. In the end they did get away with it and got the needed three points to become the third team to go 2 for 2 to start the season.

Stock Rising 📈: Eddie Nketiah