Eberechi Eze scored the only goal as a surprisingly subdued Arsenal edged past Crystal Palace at the Emirates.
The home side were a long way from their effervescent best but Eze’s first-half strike, coming on his first appearance against his former club, proved the difference as Mikel Arteta’s side opened up a four-point gap at the top of the Premier League.
Arsenal improved as the match went on with Palace unable to muster much of an attacking threat in a game devoid of goalmouth incident.
It is now four games without a win for Palace in all competitions.
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Arsenal laboured in quiet first half
The first half was a non-event – the xG of 0.2 was the lowest of any Premier League match so far this season – with Palace keeping Arsenal at arm’s length with relative ease.
The visitors didn’t offer much threat themselves but they were the neater side in possession with Daichi Kamada and Adam Wharton controlling the midfield.
Arsenal were lacking any fluency with their only real effort a low shot from Leandro Trossard that Dean Henderson saved with ease.
But, not for the first time, the home side found a way to score via a set-piece. It came after a silly foul from Yeremy Pino on Bukayo Saka with Declan Rice whipping the free-kick into the area. Gabriel knocked it down and Eze reacted first with a sweet strike that flew past Henderson and into the bottom right hand corner.
The England international’s celebrations were muted.
Gunners improve after the break
Arsenal almost added a second after 51 minutes, again via a free-kick.
Rice dinked a ball to the far post where Gabriel rose to power a header against the Bar. Rice’s follow-up was straight at Henderson.
Trossard also came close shortly afterwards, lifting the ball over the advancing Henderson but Saka was unable to get to it before Marc Guehi at the far post.
The home side dominated the final half hour even though they lacked much creativity in the final third with Saka struggling to make his usual impact and Viktor Gyokeres again working hard but without posing any kind of goal threat.
Gabriel headed wide, and collided with the post in the process, but that was about it in terms of genuine chances.
But with Palace equally blunt the game drifted towards its inevitable conclusion, giving David Raya his ninth clean sheet in 12 Premier League and Champions League games this season.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: 101greatgoals.com
