And with that, it’s goodnight. Sleep tight, Gooners.
Arsenal. Arsenal. Arsenal.
They’re 13 points behind Leicester at the top, which probably isn’t especially relevant as they’re obviously not going to win the title, but the bad news for them now is they’re only four points ahead of Manchester United in fifth. And they have to face a City side who finally appear to have removed their collective thumb from their collective bottoms in a few weeks. Although the way they’re spinelessly going about the last few weeks, you wouldn’t trust them to beat Norwich, Sunderland or West Brom (their next three fixtures), never mind City.
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Full-time: Arsenal 1-1 Crystal Palace
“Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep” goes the whistle.
“Booooooooooooooooooo” goes the home crowd.
“Pffffffftttttttttttttt” goes Arsenal’s chances of achieving anything at all this season.
90 mins + 4: “RAN IT IN THE CAWNA” yells Pardew from the sidelines, before studiously checking his watch.
90 mins + 3: Zaha makes implausible progress down the right, beating Monreal then outmuscling Koscielny, but Gabriel does well to come across and save his colleague’s bacon. Adebayor was free at the back post, so that was probably a goal-saving challenge by Koscielny.
90 mins + 2: A minute ago Walcott got the ball, ran forward with it, got a bit near some opponents then just fell over. Eeesh. Don’t take him, Roy.
90 mins: Adebayor is sent sprawling by Koscielny. Four minutes of time to be added on.
88 mins: Sako tries a shot from way out on the left that we’ll file under optimistic.
87 mins: Adebayor proves that strikers shouldn’t try helping out their defence as he tries to help out his defence, conceding a free-kick around 35 yards from goal, just to the left, Ozil flicks over a cross, Gabriel gets a glancing header but there’s not enough on it and Hennessey saves.
85 mins: Break in play while Ledley receives some treatment. Palace now look more likely to get a winner. Zaha skins Monreal down the right and centres, but it just eludes Bolasie on the edge of the box.
84 mins: Arsenal do get themselves into some frightful pickles, don’t they? Change for them, as Elneny is withdrawn to be replaced by Theo Walcott.
82 mins: Adebayor does some fine work down the left, lays it back to Bolasie who cuts inside and shoots low towards the near bottom corner. Cech dives to his right and gets half a hand on it, but it nestles in the net. Palace have had little of the half but now they’re level!
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Crystal Palace (Bolasie 82)
And from nowhere, they’re level!
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81 mins: The ball is played into the box for Giroud, he cushions a header but Monreal controls rather than shoots, and the chance is gone.
80 mins: Ozil clips a lovely pass out to the left and Giroud, but his cross back into the middle is cut back to a rather specific area in which there are no Arsenal players. He’ll be disappointed with that.
77 mins: Ozil finds himself with the ball on the right, he crosses low and Giroud opens his body and flicks the ball towards goal with his left foot, but it goes straight at the keeper.
76 mins: The corner is fizzed into the near post, where (I think) Sako gets a glancing header on it, forcing Cech into a fine save, tipping the ball over the bar. The follow-up corner comes to nothing.
75 mins: Arsenal concede a corner, then break one of football’s golden rules by making a substitution. A double substitution, no less. It’s Iwobi and Welbeck off, Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey on. Palace also make a change - just the one for them, as Wilf Zaha comes on for Puncheon.
74 mins: Sanchez’s relentless running forces half a chance, as he chases Delaney down and somehow gets a shot at goal, but Hennessey saves with relative ease.
72 mins: Welbeck takes Dann to the absolute cleaners with a delicious turn on the left, to which the Palace man responds by hacking his opponent to the floor. He is, unsurprisingly, booked.
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71 mins: Sanchez lollipops down the right side of the box, belts the ball towards the middle and claims a handball even though a) the accused handballer, Ward, was about 18 inches away and b) it hit his thigh. Other than that, etc and so on and so forth.
69 mins: Delaney tries some frankly brainless fancy footwork on the edge of his own box, almost loses control of it but eventually gets there to spread the ball to Soare on the left.
68 mins: Brilliant smart thinking by Ozil. Monreal is fouled on the left, around level with the edge of the penalty area. The German takes the free-kick quickly, crosses into the middle for Sanchez who beats Soare to the ball and glances a header just wide of the far post.
67 mins: Ozil sticks a cross over from deep on the right, finding Sanchez at the back post but his header goes wide, and he is penalised for fouling Ward anyway.
65 mins: Adebayor’s first involvement is to have a clearance blocked and fall straight into Welbeck’s path on the edge of the six-yard box, but Hennessey does well to save his effort. The ball the breaks to Elneny on the edge of the area but his effort is scuffed and unthreatening.
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63 mins: A popular change at the Emirates - Wickham is off, and Adebayor is on. Please, good lord let him score and run up the other end of the pitch to celebrate.
61 mins: Cabaye shows some delightful skill on the left, but ultimately it comes to nothing. Soare then hoofs a pass towards Bolasie on the other flank, but he backs in to Monreal and concedes a free-kick.
59 mins: Clash of heads between Gabriel and Wickham, but while it looked nasty both men are up and spritely in short order.
58 mins: ...and Ozil curls the free-kick over the wall...sending it just wide. Some people in the ground thought that was in.
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57 mins: Elneny and Ozil combine to feed Sanchez on the right of the box, then Ledley chops him down to earn the first yellow card of the day.
56 mins: Splendid work by Iwobi to break up a Palace attack, closing down Sako on the left then basically forcing the winger into fouling him clumsily.
53 mins: Iwobi plays a delightful flick that finds Welbeck on the left side of the area, he runs around the ball and opens his body up to shoot with his right foot, but his effort towards the near post was never going to beat Hennessey.
52 mins: BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO say the Arsenal fans. As there’s nothing particularly boo-worthy happening on the pitch, we can only assume Emmanuel Adebayor is warming up. And there he is!
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51 mins: Arsenal win a corner, and work it quite nicely, finding Coquelin just inside the area who scoops it into the middle where Iwobi heads, but heads a little limply wide.
50 mins: Bellerin speeds down the right in that speedy way of his, but doesn’t have the delivery to match his pace, pulling his cross back to nobody in particular.
48 mins: Dann still isn’t entirely happy with that foot knock he picked up in the first half. Could be a bone bruise, if we’re assuming he hasn’t been allowed to carry on with it broken. Either way, not particularly comfortable.
47 mins: Arsenal win a corner out on the right, Ozil hoys it into the box but it’s cleared quite easily.
46 mins: And we’re away. Football and so forth. If you like.
Sub at half-time for Palace - Bakary Sako is on in place of Jedinak, so presumably that means a formation switch to a 4-2-3-1, with Bolasie, Puncheon and Sako behind Wickham.
Well neither side had been particularly impressive in what hasn’t been a particularly impressive game, but Arsenal have their lead at the break. It might have come about due to a defensive error but Welbeck’s ball was a delight and Sanchez’s header smart.
Half-time: Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace
Peeeeeeeeep.
45 mins + 1: Arsenal take the lead. Dann, who’s having something of a nightmare, gives a hospital pass to Jedinak, he’s crowded out and the ball breaks to Welbeck, who flips a delightful ball over the defence for Sanchez to loop a header over the onrushing Hennessey.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace (Sanchez 45+1)
And there’s the goal, finally.
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45 mins: Huge chance for Wickham. Palace win a free-kick out on the right, Cabaye crosses it into the middle and Wickham meets it around six yards from goal, gets the header in but it goes wide. He was probably fouling Gabriel there but no foul is given.
43 mins: Best chance of the game, as Ozil is set free inside the box from a one-two with Sanchez, only Hennessey to beat but his stabbed effort isn’t good enough to get past the big Welshman, who spreads himself and makes a decent save.
42 mins: Dann’s back after receiving treatment but doesn’t look terribly happy with life. He’s limping but Arsenal help him out by keeping the ball on the other side of the pitch for a good minute.
40 mins: Palace win a free-kick with one of those weird things where a player (in this case Dann) kicks one clear but catches the studs of an opponent (in this case Gabriel) on the follow-through. Painful one for the Palace man, and he’s receiving some treatment.
39 mins: Sanchez hits it, the ball looks like it’s arrowing towards the bottom corner but it flicks off the top of the wall and goes out for a corner. The ball makes it to the back post and Ward, claiming a push from Sanchez, briefly traps the ball betwixt his knees. Isn’t that obstruction?
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38 mins: Incredibly clumsy challenge by Dann on Welbeck produces an excellent shooting chance for Arsenal. 25-odd yards out, to the left of centre, Sanchez and Ozil line it up.
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37 mins: A particularly loud burst of Pards is shrewdly curtailed by whoever controls the effects mic, the volume rapidly turned down before an eff or even a cee, knowing ol’ Potty Mouth Alan, makes it onto the airwaves.
35 mins: Sanchez tries a smart cross from the right, curling round the back of the defence, but it’s cut out at the near post.
34 mins: Wickham tries a ball over the top and down the left for Bolasie, but he takes one look at it and decides it’s not worth chasing. And he has a point.
32 mins: The only shot on target so far has been that wet fart of an effort from Bolasie on 28 minutes. Not the greatest game so far, this.
30 mins: And have done two-fifths of eff all with it.
Arsenal have had 105% possession so far
— arseblog (@arseblog) April 17, 2016
29 mins: After some brief and tedious disagreement about where the ball is placed, Elneny’s corner doesn’t beat the first man.
28 mins: Bolasie gets the ball on the left corner of the box, works an angle to shoot but does so with little power, straight at Cech. At the other end Dann gets his feet into an awful kerfuffle, stabs the ball out of play for a corner then tries to style it out, claiming a goal kick. No dice there, son.
26 mins: An Arsenal corner comes to nothing, but replays indicate Damian Delaney had his arm around Koscielny’s neck. Lucky boy. At the other end a Palace cross sails harmlessly out of play, but someone shouts ‘LEAVE IT!’ Not allowed in 5-a-side, that.
25 mins: Mark Judd has what smells an awful lot like a riff for us: “Bastian Schweinsteiger looks like a happy schoolboy in that photo, a possibly overgrown one but still a schoolboy. He looks pleased with his new daps/trainers/pumps, call them what you will, though. I grew up in an area where we called them daps. What names did others have for them?”
24 mins: The referee falls over! The rest of this game is a footnote, we can all go home now.
23 mins: “I hate to use an expression associated with the unlamented Ron Atkinson,” starts Charles Antaki, not causing us to hover over the ‘edit’ button carefully, “but Arsenal seem a bit too easy-ozy. Will it take a Palace goal to get them out of second gear?”
22 mins: Jedinak spreads a nice pass out to the left where Bolasie is waiting, but the ball takes an iffy hop and goes past him for a throw.
21 mins: Arsenal! Sanchez spins delightfully to get past Jedinak, but then stabs a terrible pass through to nobody in particular, rendering the previous snatch of skill absolutely pointless.
19 mins: Handsome Yohan Cabaye just adds to his attractiveness by adding a bad boy dimension to it, chopping down Coquelin around 30 yards out. Ozil curls the free-kick into the box but it’s cleared, eventually finding Elneny whose shot from range is deflected off Jedinak, loops up and eventually drops just over the bar.
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17 mins: Cech rather unconvincingly punches the corner clear, it falls to Soare out on the left who returns it into the box. Dann rises, meets the ball with his head but it sails just wide.
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16 mins: A long pass down the right finds Bolasie, who gets past Gabriel a bit too easily but delays his cross aiming for Wickham at the back stick for too long, and it’s put behind for a corner.
14 mins: Still not much going on. We now bring you this heart-warming message from Bastian’s sponsors.
Sports can change the world and bring people together! #SneakersforGood 👟👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/jLxNv62LEp
— Basti Schweinsteiger (@BSchweinsteiger) April 17, 2016
13 mins: Ozil has a little space on the edge of the box, but he dithers slightly before shooting and eventually has to spread wide to Bellerin, who clips a cross to the far post but Hennessey and his Mr Tickle arms get there to catch the thing.
12 mins: Not a great deal happening at present. Palace are sitting very deep, allowing Arsenal to knock it around as much as they like until they get around 35 yards from goal. Which probably isn’t the worst plan.
10 mins: Alan Pardew’s voice booms from the touchline. “Git it aaaaaht” he urges someone or other.
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9 mins: A chant of ‘Your ground’s too big for you’ goes up from the away end. Banter!
8 mins: Arsenal probing again, this time through Iwobi and Bellerin towards the right side of the box, but they don’t have any joy getting through. They regroup, Ozil squares to Coquelin but his through-ball eludes everyone and skips through for a goal-kick.
6 mins: Ozil nearly plays a delightful ball through for Welbeck, but it just skips beyond the forward and through to Wayne Hennessey in nets.
5 mins: First chance for Arsenal. Sanchez tries to thread a ball through what amounts to a mousehole in the Palace defence, it’s half-cleared and breaks to Elneny on the edge of the box, but his side-footed effort from the edge of the area is blocked.
3 mins: Barely anything has happened in the first three minutes. Arsenal have passed it around a bit, but you sort of take that as a given. Bellerin gives away a free kick by taking a healthy handful of Connor Wickham’s shirt.
1 min: And we’re away. The sun is out, but that seemingly hasn’t persuaded an awful lot of people to leave the house and head to the Emirates - looooooot of empty seats out there.
The teams are out on the pitch. If we’re lucky, something like this will happen today.
Autogoal di Consigli. #FiorentinaSassuolo pic.twitter.com/nVsFoNn9cE
— Zac (@Zac_TW) April 17, 2016
So here we all are. The Emirates looks like it’s absolutely fizzing with excitement.
Good news, Gooners - Arsene Wenger appears not to have given up on the title race...
First of all, we are not behind Spurs yet,” he said. “Anyway, Tottenham have been 18 years behind us and they’ve survived. So let’s be realistic.
“ If Leicester win on Sunday it does not affect us, it does not change the fact that we absolutely have to win our game against Palace. Let’s prepare for that no matter what the result is.
“We need a perfect run. They can drop points on Sunday but if they go until the end of the season having lost only three games what can you say [other than] well done, congratulations, even if it’s Leicester that nobody expected.
“At the moment it’s difficult for us to accept that we are not completely there [at the top]. Leicester have lost three games, it is exceptional. They lost two games against us, and then you have Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, all of whom you’d think they would lose more than one game against. Barcelona has lost four games this season, Real Madrid five and Leicester three.”
Team news
Arsenal
Cech; Bellerin, Koscielny, Gabriel, Monreal; Coquelin, Elneny; Iwobi, Ozil, Sanchez; Welbeck. Subs: Ospina, Mertesacker, Chambers, Ramsey, Campbell, Walcott, Giroud.
Crystal Palace
Hennessey; Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souare; Puncheon, Jedinak, Cabaye, Ledley, Bolasie; Wickham. Subs: Speroni, Mariappa, Kelly, Lee, Sako, Zaha, Adebayor.
Referee: Roger East (Wiltshire)
Preamble
So, does this game actually mean anything? Crystal Palace aren’t going down, their win last week and the general incompetence of everyone beneath them securing their place in the Premier League for one more season, and Alan Pardew’s status as England’s next manager (scoff all you like, it might happen) written in stone. Arsenal aren’t going to win the league, but equally they probably aren’t going to drop out of the magical top four either.
Oh, actually, now we mention it they might drop out of the top four. They’re just the three points ahead of fifth-placed Manchester United at the start of play, and given that fragility they showed against West Ham that Arsene Wenger insists doesn’t exist, you wouldn’t put a late collapse beyond them. That Fourth Place Trophy might slip through their fingers. Sad dressing room selfies with Olivier Giroud pouting in his pants ahoy.
So it does mean something, as it turns out. A fair amount, in the end. So stay tuned and pay attention as the Gooners shift their attention from challenging Leicester and Tottenham to ensuring they achieve that bare minimum they’ve achieved for the last billion years or whatever it is. Team news shortly.
Kick-off: 16.00 BST
Nick will be here shortly with live coverage of the Premier League match at the Emirates. In the meantime, here’s what Arsène Wenger has been talking about before the game.
Arsène Wenger bristled at the mere mention of Andy Carroll. The question flung his way had been a precursor to a series on the threat Crystal Palace, and Emmanuel Adebayor in particular, might pose a bruised back-line at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, but this was a manager still seething from the events of a week ago. Adebayor would have to wait.
“That Carroll stays on the pitch is absolutely scandalous,” he said of the man whose hat-trick at Upton Park, in last Saturday’s share of six goals, had left Arsenal’s defence feeling diminished. “The first foul [early on Laurent Koscielny] was a straight red. Watch it 10 times: it’s unbelievable he stays on the pitch, but nobody speaks about that. In the second half he makes three fouls without getting a second yellow. If you’re allowed absolutely everything on the football pitch, it’s easy to be physical because you’re not punished.”
The conversation eventually drifted on to tackling and the Frenchman’s perception that challenges from behind are increasingly tolerated whereas observers now find “face-to-face fouls horrendous”, but the issue of a soft underbelly had long since been exposed. Wenger is still to decide whether Per Mertesacker returns to his starting lineup, the manager still weighing up what poses the greater risk: Adebayor in the air, or the prospect of Yannick Bolasie or Wilfried Zaha running at his veteran centre-half.
The likelihood is that Gabriel Paulista will retain his place, albeit with Petr Cech restored between the posts, as Arsenal seek to edge closer to Tottenham Hotspur. The manager is demanding a pristine run-in to a season already tinged with anticlimax. The prospect of Adebayor, three years an Arsenal player but long since established as the villain in those parts, enjoying his latest return to the Emirates Stadium is too much to contemplate.
