Positives & negatives as Arsenal draw 2-2 against Crystal Palace

Positive #2: What striker issues?

If Arsenal buy a ‘proper’ #9 this summer, the title could be won by Christmas!

Mikel Merino has carried the goal-scoring burden since Kai Havertz got injured and he is doing a fine job, making ten goal contributions (six goals and four assists) in his last 13 matches.

He was left out of the squad in midweek and, instead, Leandro Trossard led the line, and with similar success. The Belgium star grabbed our second goal on the night and his fourth in four league games following a brace at Ipswich Town as well as a strike at Everton, his recent outlays matching his total from our previous thirty league games combined.   

Trossard is not exactly a stranger to the CF role but he is certainly a back-up choice at best and offers very different qualities to Havertz. Given their stylistic contrast, Arsenal can still be very pleased with how they are coping amid such frontline woes.

Resolve them in the summer and this project will go ‘bang’.

Negative #2: Bad collective effort

Our expectations were quite low, but…

This match formed a difficult proposition for Arsenal: their top-five status is ‘relatively’ safe and they might naturally have one eye on PSG next week. Therefore, only pride and professionalism remained at stake, alongside a strong desire to not hand Liverpool the title JUST yet.

But never mind one eye: they played like a team that is already on the beach and has bags packed for a jaunt around Paris. There was little to no urgency in attack, they committed several unforced errors (as mentioned above) and some players – including captain Martin Odegaard – were just completely anonymous.

Meanwhile, David Raya looked terribly out of sorts and played a big role in handing momentum back to Palace, his wayward passing and flapping under the high ball being a far cry from his typical, calm self between the sticks.

Maybe it is a one-off and the players are more focused on the Champions League semi-final, yet their complacency was frightening to watch and cannot be allowed to become a feature of the rest of this domestic season.

Continued on the next slide...