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…

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.

Continued on next page…

3. Ben White Put in a Greataston Shift

Very early on in this clash Ben White misplaced a pass out wide the Takehiro Tomiyasu. He immediately reacted strongly, charging in to win the ball back cleanly as he did with a delicate first touch away from Edouard before nonchalantly backheeling the ball to a teammate.

He held his hands up and moved on.

Everything between that first minute moment and the second goal was near faultless. No hyperbole, he didn’t put a foot wrong. Unbelievably composed on the ball with a couple of carries up to the halfway line when lanes were blocked and some instinctive defensive guile to read the play and nip in ahead of an opponent to pinch the ball, he looked strong. No player made more interceptions than him on the night (3) and he progressed the ball into the final third more than anyone on his team (7).

The way he stood out in that opening period was very good. He looked like a top, top defender.

The goal taints it. Yes, he was thrown under the bus with Sambi losing possession in the opposing half and Palace being quick to transition with a numerical equilibrium, but he did back off too much as Edouard fired past him. If you’re going to back off like that you have to be sure to be in a position to block the shot. He wasn’t.

White was thrown under the bus but he should have done better.

That was it though. That was the only blotch on an otherwise solid evening. It was clear from his reaction to the equaliser that there was relief to his error, and his role in the goal also deserves heralding. Looking to win the knock down he showed clever positioning to drift into a space where the ball could fall unattended, firing in an effort that eventually fell to Lacazette.

One mistake on the night in a match where he barely put a foot wrong. That’s a positive.