Teams
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Linighan, Winterburn, Davis, Schwarz,
Selley, Merson, Smith, Wright
Subs: Campbell (Davis 45), Keown, Bartram
Palace : Martyn, Patterson, Shaw, Coleman, Gordon, Southgate, Newman,
Bowry, Ndah, Armstrong
Subs: Dyer, Launders, Wilmot
Result : Arsenal (0) 1 Crystal Palace (2) 2
Scorers : Wright 72 Salako 19, 41
Bookings: Adams, Wright Patterson
Att : 34???
Referee : M Bodenham (Looe)
Another mixed performance from Arsenal - a distinctly poor first half
somewhat redeemed by a storming 2nd period. Unfortunately it wasn't
quite enough as Palace rode their luck and held out to secure all three
points in a reasonably exciting and entertaining game.
The match started quite brightly, with Palace forcing an early corner, but then Arsenal getting on top for the next 15 minutes or so and having a good patch which was sparked when Wright flicked the ball over his head and turned a defender to fire in a good shot from 20 yards, but straight at Martyn. Soon afterwards he had another chance to get his 100th goal for Arsenal. Davis headed a clearance forward towards Smith, which a defender just reached before him, but could only head the ball directly to the feet of Wright, in the area with only the keeper to beat. He tried to go round Martyn and hook the ball in with his left foot in one movement but succeeded only in slicing the ball a couple of yards wide. Then came a forewarning of things to come. A long clearance out of defence found Armstrong running clear down the left. With Linighan managing on this occasion to get back to cover, he held the ball up before playing it through to Salako running on at the far post. The flag went up and Salako put the ball over the bar anyway, but not long after that a similar break resulted in the first goal. This time a Palace defender lunged between Davis and Dixon and the ball broke perfectly into Armstrong's path to leave him a clean run on goal. Linighan failed to catch him this time, and Armstrong got into the area to toe-poke the ball past Seaman. It came back off the far post straight to Salako's feet for a simple tap-in.
As somebody else has mentioned, in the first half Arsenal just weren't getting enough width. With Merson, Wright and Smith up front, we were left with three central midfielders in the middle of the park. While Schwarz on occasion did get wide down the left, Selley on the right kept getting too far into the centre which meant when the fullbacks went forward there often wasn't enough cover on the flanks. Armstrong and Salako were both breaking forward very well, and the second goal came from a similar break. This time Armstrong picked up a hoof out of defence on the left and took it on into the area with Adams covering. On this occasion it seemed that Linighan was covering Salako, the only other attacker, but at the moment that Armstrong played the ball across Linighan unaccountably seemed to stop running, which left Salako with an even simpler tap-in at the far post. In the meantime Arsenal huffed and puffed a bit, but without much in the way of end result. A Smith flick-on from a corner did find Merson in a bit of space on the 6-yd line, but it came to him on his left foot and by the time he'd lined up the shot a defender got across to block. From the resultant corner Adams rose above everybody else but put the header over the bar.
Graham reorganised things in the 2nd half. Campbell replaced Davis, and he and Merson played most of the time wide right and left respectively. It seemed to have an effect because the second half was played almost entirely in Palace's half, with virtually incessant Arsenal pressure producing a string of corners, chances and Martyn saves. Adams had a couple of early chances to continue his goalscoring run. First Selley scooped a ball forward from just outside the area which fell onto Adams' chest, but it ran slightly away from him and Patterson was able to block. Then from another flick-on at a corner the ball was just too high for him to direct his header and the ball went just over the angle of post and bar. After a scramble from another corner, the ball came out to Merson and he hit a shot back through a ruck of players. Campbell, standing just in front of the 6-yd line got a slight deflection on it, but still Martyn pulled off a great save. He followed this up with another tremendous stop from Wright. Schwarz flicked the ball in to Wright on the edge of the box, and a good turn made space for a run along the 18-yd line and beautifully struck right foot shot which Martyn was equal to. However, from the resultant throw-in Arsenal finally made the breakthrough. Campbell took the ball from the throw and turned his defender well at the byline to produce a good cross to the far post where Wright got above his marker to head into the top corner. More desperate attacking matched by desperate defending kept the excitement high. A couple of lone breaks by Salako could have brought Palace another goal as Arsenal left bigger gaps at the back in search of the equaliser. They came closest to it a couple of minutes from time. Merson, I think played a ball in from the left. Adams made a nuisance of himself challenging for it, but it went over his and the defenders' heads and dropped to Campbell running in behind. He chested it down and caught it beautifully on the half-volley. From my seat more or less in line with the shot it looked like it was going in, but Martyn flung himself to his right to fingertip the ball away for a corner. An outstanding save which he followed up in injury time with a slightly more routine one from Wright's header off another far-post cross from Campbell.
Ultimately a disappointing performance from the Gunners. I thought their second half efforts meritted at least a draw even if on the first half they weren't worth a win. Palace played very well, particularly on the break in the first half, but the Arsenal defence looked decidely unsteady at times, often being caught short by the quick breaks. I wouldn't pick anybody out as playing particularly badly, but as a whole things didn't quite work. I thought Campbell did quite well, and Wright had one of his typically mixed matches - moments of the sublime mixed with the ridiculous. His 100th goal (in 142/3 matches) and a booking for petulantly kicking the ball at the prone Ndah after the Palace player had collapsed under a fairly innocuous looking challenge. This after trying the ref's patience with a couple of reckless tackles earlier in the match, and himself feigning injury after a challenge in the 1st half which didn't even result in a free-kick. So the disturbing similarity in form with last season continues, yet still I live in hope, still more than 80% of the season left remember. Expect to see a few changes for the return match against Hartlepool on Wednesday.
Report by Derek Brownjohn.