Arsenal: 3 positives from 2-2 Crystal Palace draw

2. The Team Showed Character

Character. That famous football buzzword.

Is it only ‘character’ when the Hail Mary approach breeds a goal? Whenever a late equaliser is snatched or some equally late winning goal is secured, how much of it is character and how much is just the bounce of the ball?

The ricochet off Gabriel Martinelli could easily have been cleared or deflected wide instead of falling into Alexandre Lacazette’s path. Is that ‘character‘? Nobody would have used that word if Arsenal hadn’t have clawed a point from none.

So discounting the goal, instead it’s better to look at how the team responded to the setback. It was very much more of the same. Thus, the accolade more kindly falls to the French striker, who epitomised the spirit within the camp as he led the charge, being focal to everything Arsenal tried to do in the final 20 minutes.

But there was character overall. There just wasn’t much quality.

As little as the point does in turning around Arsenal’s fortunes or painting the display in a different light, there was fight there. It’s polishing a turd stuff, admittedly, but one need only see the reaction of the players when Lacazette did likewise against Southampton during Unai Emery’s reign to see the contrast of emotions. Nobody even flinched when he grabbed that goal. In this case the team went ballistic – White even did his best air boxing routine.

Is it enough? Absolutely not. It shouldn’t have come to that position in the first place. You can’t deny the team for being determined though, even if it only arrived as the result of collective inadequacies.

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