Palace 1-5 Arsenal Player Ratings and Match Reaction

[HCZ_Reborn]

Raya 8 - The scoreline flattered us somewhat, Raya was the reason for that


Timber 7 - Generally solid, though needs to be reminded that referees will punish us even for a hint of time wasting


Saliba 4.5 - Stunk the place out worse than that homeless person i once encountered in a train carriage who made my eyes water. Fortunately this is extremely uncharacteristic.


Gabriel 6.5 - Bit more solid than his centre half partner, offered threat from set pieces


Lewis-Skelly 7 - Solid


Partey 5.5 - Gave Palace attackers the freedom of midfield


Odegaard 7 - Decent performance, nothing spectacular


Havertz 6.5 - Good attackers instincts to finish off from the loose ball, but he’s not a midfielder


Martinelli 7.5 - The fact that he looked far more dynamic when Saka’s injury meant he switched to the right, just shows you how much of the attacking focal point is directed down that side of the pitch


Saka 7 - Assist for first goal, worrying injury


Jesus 9 - Let’s face it, this is the best performance in the league he’s ever given us in an Arsenal shirt. But I’m yet to be remotely convinced that he’s not a busted flush and this isn’t some death rattle



Subs


Trossard 6.5 - Decent on the ball, but ultimately still as isolated as anyone who plays on the left tends to be


Calafiori 7 - Managed to play on, despite Clyne being a vicious scrote


Rice 8 - Also one of his best performances this season, might have something to do with him playing in his natural position. Lovely finish as well


Merino and Nwaneri - Can’t remember either getting on the ball so N/A


Bit of a mixed evening, of course the scoreline and the overall attacking display was excellent can’t be faulted. The defending was ropey with Saliba the biggest offender, if not standing off getting caught in possession…but frankly he’s been such a top performer over the last couple of years that he can be forgiven one ropey one.
The reason it’s mixed is because of the injury to Saka which looked very much hamstring based, we need that like a bag on our hip. I think in the short-medium term Martinelli could move to the right to cover, I think he looked a threat with pace…but as I said the other day, what Saka brings to the game that makes him superior is not only the end product but the work rate to go with it.

Also with Jesus, I’m reminded of 2022 when Nketiah went through a purple patch and was awarded with a new contract, and then never really produced after it. Jesus for sure is playing with confidence, he was showing for the ball in a way he rarely does usually but I’m far from convinced that the resurrection has occurred. He was a patchy player with Man City

[Niall_Quinn]

Good result and expected result. Palace could barely cope with that reserve team thrown together midweek, no wonder they were pulverised by the first team. But it would have been totally us to make a meal of it yet we didn't. Did the business. No great plaudits for doing the basics. But recognition nonetheless. Good. Now keep doing that in every game, as the bare minimum. This is professional, highly paid sport after all. See a lot of gushing elsewhere. This isn't helping. Don't suck cock just because somebody did their job.

[Niall_Quinn]

Watching that shit cunt on the BBC now, and the grinning braindeads in the studio. Palace goal? Look at Partey. What a fuck of a non-player he is. If Rice is on the pitch that never, ever gets near our goal. Lazy Partey is at least 5 yards behind the play. Why is Arteta playing this bag of shit? Not great out on the flank either, shit defending. What a poor goal to give away. Walked right through us.

[Niall_Quinn]

Lovely finishes by Jesus, twice. That's it, just kick the fucking thing toward the opposition goal, first time. That extra touch all of our players have been taking, kills us on other days.

[Niall_Quinn]

Has Saliba been a bit shit in recent weeks? Noticed complacency as his prime attribute of late. Hope he isn't starting to believe his own press.

[Niall_Quinn]

Rice's goal, same thing. Don't dally, hit the fucker. Surely there's a lesson somewhere in this?

[HCZ_Reborn]

Whilst I’m there, that LCM no 8 role….Arteta still won’t quite give up on having that role despite the fact that there really isn’t any player in the team that can competently play there. Today he reverted to his thinking from a year ago by having Havertz there and his goal aside, was totally ineffective and once again it caused whoever played on the left wing (Martinelli and then Trossard) to become totally isolated.

Merino, Rice, none of them are good enough passers of the ball to play there. In fact the only individual he’s never tried there is Ethan Nwaneri….but that’s because he’s decided that like Clarke Kent/Superman…he and Odegaard can never appear at the same time.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Has Saliba been a bit shit in recent weeks? Noticed complacency as his prime attribute of late. Hope he isn't starting to believe his own press.

You're not the only one.

Gabriel has been our standout CB this season and its not even close.

A few weeks ago, a part of me started thinking, "maybe he's doing this shit on purpose to engineer a move to Real Madrid" ... I mean this use to be a tactic a few players in the past would employ to get moves to the club they actually "wanted".

Anyway, he's lucky his "complaceny" (you got it spot on) hasn't cost us any real points (at least I think so).

Thankfully, if he does go soon (which I hope he doesn't), thanks to Arteta's obsession, we've got quite a few players who can cover.

[Marc Overmars]

Saliba has been playing at a high level for a while now and still only 23, so I’ll forgive some dopey performances for now.

Saying that, the structure of the team has definitely wilted compared to last season. We give up chances more frequently now.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I don’t know how true that is (that we are coughing up more chances) we did yesterday for sure, but against Fulham, West Ham and even Chelsea and Newcastle basically the only real chances the opposition had were the ones they scored from. True we have kept one clean sheet away from home since September (and that was away at Preston in the league cup) which given how we kept 21 clean sheets away from home in the league over the past two seasons is uncharacteristic.

Yet that seems to be balanced out by keeping more clean sheets at home, before midweek against Palace we kept four clean sheets in a row at home.

And we’ve only conceded one more goal than we had at the same point last season in the league

[IBK]

Was interesting to see the difference when we let go of our possession obsessed game. We were assisted by a team that decided to have a go rather than sitting in a low block, but it was nice to have a risposte to all those who said that we cannot score from open play. Interesting also to see Chelsea 'Dyched' like we were...and you can hardly accuse them of being bereft of forwards.

There are very few easy games in the EPL, and for me our uncharacteristic defensive 'frailties' were as much an inevitable consequence of us playing differently to our usual approach as anything else. If a game is more open, then the opposition will have more chances to score. This is how Liverpool and Chelsea play - and they are above us in the league. Not going to go after Saliba's mistakes and I think its harsh to suggest that he is complacent. As good as he is, a 23 year old will have the occasional poor game.

I think NQ's slating of Partey is unwarranted too. For me he has been our best MF this season. He was being asked to do 2 jobs as our No. 6 - an unfamiliar role for him - and I don't think a 1-5 win in which he got an assist and completed 91% of his passes is the occasion to single him out for criticism.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Partey was good at making key passes, but leaving him at no6 was a little bit like leaving Harold Bishop to guard the gates of the Bastille when the revolutionaries stormed it.

He’s two footed, he’s a very good passer of the ball but he’s about as reliable at putting out fires as Marius Van Der Lubbe. Doesn’t track runners