Arsenal 4 Crystal Palace 1: Early blitz provides hope for life after Alexis Sanchez

MATCH SUMMARY
Arsenal 4 - 1 Crystal Palace
English Premier League20/01/2018 15:00
Referee: Chris Kavanagh|Venue: Emirates Stadium|Attendance: 59,386
Monreal6'
Iwobi10'
Koscielny13'
Lacazette22'
Milivojevic78

A day out for the flat-track bullies or glimpses of an exciting new beginning without Alexis Sanchez? Fans of Arsenal have seen enough false dawns to instinctively suspect the former but, even allowing for Crystal Palace’s very obvious limitations, there was still enough here to suggest that life after Sanchez might actually be an improvement on the past year.

Arsenal really should have begun this process with Sanchez’s sale last summer and, after having a £45 million bid rejected on Saturday, are also now preparing to return with a second bid for Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

With Henrikh Mkhitaryan also due imminently to arrive from Manchester United and Mesut Ozil, Alex Iwobi, Alexandre Lacazette and Jack Wilshere all influential here in a match that was effectively over at 4-0 after just 22 minutes, Arsenal’s main problem has never really related to their offensive options.

It is the defensive shape of the team and, in switching to a third different system of the season, manager Arsene Wenger might finally have found the optimum balance.

The addition of Mohamed Elneny just behind two more liberated central midfielders in Jack Wilshere and Granit Xhaka meant a return to four at the back and provided the platform for an immediate dominance of possession.

Whereas Xhaka, Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey are all midfielders who like to break forward in attack, Elneny did an extremely effective and disciplined job just simply parked in front of the defence.

Crystal Palace, who are close to the signings themselves of both Jaroslaw Jach and Erdal Rakip, must have intended to exploit all the simmering tension that is hovering just now around The Emirates but were undone by a defensive horror-show duly that gifted Arsenal three goals in only 13 minutes.

Arsenal were certainly passing the ball slickly but did not actually have to produce much in the final third to establish this unassailable advantage, with left-back Nacho Monreal scoring the first and then even providing two assists in what was his first match for a month.

Iwobi’s shot had initially been tipped over by Palace goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and, from Xhaka’s corner, Monreal simply lost James McArthur and headed Arsenal into the lead. Monreal then sprinted onto Timothy Fosu-Mensah’s miscued clearance and crossed for Iwobi to finish past Hennessey. From another Xhaka corner, Monreal was again completely unmarked to hook the ball back along the six-yard box for another returning defender, Laurent Koscielny, to finish

Few managers are ever more aggrieved to concede from set-pieces than Roy Hodgson and his Crystal Palace players can expected plenty of time devoted to ironing out these players over this next week. “It is hard to take when it is from corners,” said Hodgson.

Having emerged as the unlikely answer to any creative concerns without Sanchez, Monreal then signalled that he was feeling pain in his hamstring and was quickly taken offer ahead of the League Cup semi-final second leg against Chelsea on Wednesday.

Arsenal’s goals might have been uncharacteristically scrappy but a wonderful blur of passing then did follow between Ozil and Wilshere that culminated with the German playmaker delightfully backheeling for Lacazette to end his nine-game scoring drought.

Hodgson had been talking about the “sadistic pleasure of management” in interviews before this game but, with 70 minutes still remaining, even he was already fearing just how many Arsenal might ultimately score.

“Arsenal showed their full range of their passing skills and I thought we were staring down the barrel of a gun against a team of their quality,” he later said. “Had we not martialled ourselves and showed the character, desire, work-rate and energy we did in the second half it would have been an avalanche.”

Indeed, Palace did then consolidate defensively and actually also began to pose an attacking threat. After some typically nimble dribbling, Wilfried Zaha forced a first save of Petr Cech and the Arsenal goalkeeper was then required to make an even better block to deny Christian Benteke. Cech had been aiming for a record 200th Premier League clean sheet but Luka Milivojevic’s volley ensured that landmark must wait and at least provided Palace with a late consolation.

“We reduced the deficit to minus three rather than the seven or eight it could have been at one stage,” said Hodgson. Arsenal were denied a penalty when Lacazette was upended by James Tomkins but the match also ended badly for Palace when Yohan Cabaye was stretchered off. Cabaye left The Emirates on crutches and Hodgson fears ankle ligament damage amid a worsening list of injuries. “The two goalkeepers and 16 outfield players in the squad are all we have available,” he said.

Arsenal have considerably more options even without Sanchez and, in highlighting just how disruptive these past weeks have been, Wenger sounded almost relieved to report that his star striker had been travelling up to Manchester during the game.

“It is the first time in January that we have lost one of our big players,” said Wenger. “It is a bit more destabilising than usual. It is not only to lose a world class player: this uncertainty creates a strange feeling in the dressing-room and is why the transfer period is difficult during the season. Once clear, the team focus on the job. We played how we know we can play when everybody is focussed and in good shape. It was a convincing win.”