Arsenal Vs Crystal Palace: A season of two halves continues

Arsenal again stalled in the first half before exploding in the second half in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace. It really is a season of two halves.

It’s been a very strange season for Arsenal so far this season. They haven’t really played well all year, yet they sit in fourth position; they haven’t really attacked that well, other than in spurts, but have more away goals than any other team in the Premier League. But there is no stranger development than the split between their first and second halves.

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The Gunners have scored 24 goals this season. That is the equal-second most in the Premier League behind only Manchester City. But of those 24 goals, 18 have come in the second half, a staggering 75% share.

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That is an incredible statistic. It is highly curious that Unai Emery’s team have been so Jekyll and Hyde before and after the break and does perhaps hint at the greater fitness of the team which takes effect as the match progresses. But it is rather difficult to explain with any great depth. A team should not be so different from one half to the other. And it was again the case on Sunday afternoon against Crystal Palace.

Arsenal were 1-0 down at half-time, conceding a late first-half penalty thanks to a calamitous Shkodran Mustafi lunge. They then burst back into contention with two quick strikes early in the second half to lead 2-1, before conceding another penalty to end the match 2-2. It was indicative of the whole season, with the second-half display substantially improved from the first.

Ten games into the year and Arsenal have not been leading at half-time in any match. More than just that, they have been drawing at half-time in every single of the seven matches that they won in the recent run. In the other three, in which they have dropped points in all of them, they were losing two at half-time. This really has been a season of two halves for the Gunners. Just it’s not happened over the whole year. It’s happened in every single game.

Moving forwards, Emery does need to be acutely aware of his team’s slow starts. When they come to face Liverpool next weekend, for instance, they cannot hope to have even a smidge of a chance if they concede the type of chances that they did in the first half against Palace, and have done throughout the year — Leicester City could easily have been two or three goals to the good on Monday night.

The winning mentality that this team is consistently showing is admirable — and rare. And Emery has clearly instilled a greater resolve and determination in this squad. They now know how to win when they are not playing well. But they need to learn how to play well for repeated success throughout the season, especially in the first half.

This has been a season of two halves thus far for Arsenal. But if they want to challenge for a top-four place and maybe even more, then they must learn to become a 90-minute team.