Arsenal: 3 positives from 2-2 Crystal Palace draw

Back again with another edition of trying to lift spirits and see the positives in the negatives are the elements of the 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace that will more willingly be highlighted. Where is the Arsenal light? It must be somewhere.

Monday’s game was infuriating. Every fan will view the outcome of matches differently (see: Brighton), as on the one hand Palace should have been down to ten and both goals were individual errors, while on the other Arsenal were, well, dreadful.

Picking apart the remnants of that last-gasp draw brings up almost exclusively negative points. The inability of this team to attack with any real threat or purpose, or indeed to maintain spells of pressure for longer than a brief few minutes remains a constant point of incandescence.

With such a panoply of attacking talent the dearth of chances created has to fall on the manager’s shoulders. Mikel Arteta has already walked the plank for many. This didn’t help.

3 positives for Arsenal from disappointing 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace as Mikel Arteta’s side continue to struggle in the Premier League

Is one of the positives that the unbeaten run has continued? No, it is not. This is two points dropped whether the performance merited it or not, and a substantial setback when the openings were there courtesy of other results.

This five match unbeaten run in the Premier League consists of one excellent display (Tottenham) two average ones (Norwich, Burnley) and two very poor ones (Brighton, Crystal Palace). Everyone remembers the 22-game unbeaten run under Unai Emery where Arsenal didn’t keep a single Premier League away clean sheet. It’s all relative.

There is no time to spare for the Gunners, though. Aston Villa are next up at the Emirates as soon as Friday and a repeat display from the team will see this week end up with one point from six. No question of that.

So as the uninspiring aspects of matchweek eight are picked apart and hopefully improved on, what were the elements that deserve some credit? There are but a few.

Disclaimer: This does not mean everything is fine. Please don’t think that.

1. Aaron Ramsdale’s Distribution

The first half is singled out as the second period saw Arsenal far more advanced in the search for a route back into the game with the goalkeeper left to take throw-ins (he took two!) and leave the distributing to Ben White and Gabriel.

But in that first half he added the diversity of pass that Bernd Leno is incapable of. He went a mixture of long and short, through and over, finding feet and spaces in behind with a pleasant-on-the eye set of passes.

A notably fine ball was a line breaking ground pass into Emile Smith Rowe that took out five Palace players, one he produced under pressure, and got Inaki Cana up off his feet applauding. Add to that a decent stop to deny Conor Gallagher late on and it was a solid first half showing from him.

Some criticism fell his way for being beaten on the second goal, much of which seems harsh. White backs off too much and the angle of vision for Ramsdale is blocked, meaning reaction times in that moment have to be superhuman.

Credit does need to go to Odsonne Edouard, too, who finished the chance well.

In order to garner a fair assessment of Ramsdale there has needed to be a string of games together where judgement can be made, and he hasn’t started looking flustered as of yet.

Continued…