3 positives & negatives from 1-0 Crystal Palace victory

Arsenal made it two wins from their opening two Premier League fixtures this season with a hard-fought 1-0  away victory against Crystal Palace.

Similar to their opening weekend win, the Gunners were far from their best in this encounter, with the absence of their typical free-flowing attacking football again causing a lack of clear goal-scoring opportunities.

Eddie Nketiah could and perhaps should have done better with two golden chances in the first half, but he later made up for those misses by winning the penalty that skipper Martin Odegaard tucked away to ultimately win the game for the visitors.

Here are three positives and negatives from the match that saw Arsenal keep pace with Manchester City during the early stages of this campaign.

3 positives and negatives from the 1-0 Crystal Palace victory

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Positive #1: A clean sheet

Our defensive solidity provided the platform we needed to mount a serious title challenge last season, although our levels dropped in this regard towards the end of the campaign which contributed to our end-of-season collapse.

Against Forest in our season opener, the same issues were present as the visitors found it all too easy to counter against us at times. Therefore, securing a clean sheet in this fixture, a game in which we played with ten men for 30 minutes, is not only impressive but also important to our title credentials.

Negative #1: Lack of creativity

However, with that being said, one concern from this game, which was also present against Forest, is a clear lack of creativity. While it is true that both teams have defended deep against us, it is also true that in both matches we have struggled to find solutions to combat that strategy.

Speaking after the match, Mikel Arteta, whilst keen to praise our defensive solidity, also stressed the importance for us to score more goals.

"“We have to put the ball in the net more often, especially with the dominance we are having in games. But that’s the most difficult thing in football, so if you don’t do that, you have to do the other part, which is be extremely solid. We were last week and we were again today with the chances we conceded. Let’s keep playing better and evolving.”"

Our three goals this season have come from individual moments of brilliance and, against Palace, a penalty kick conversion. Perhaps this can be attributed to the fact that we have played just two games and are still finding our rhythm. However, the longer this issue persists, the more likely teams are to set up in this manner against us.

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