Righto, that’s us for tonight; here’s Nick Ames’ match report. Night-night.
“When defending an attacker one v one,” says Mary Waltz, “maybe you shouldn’t wait until you’re sitting on your goalie’s lap to put in a challenge.”
Sage words. As a defender you want to control the situation, and at no point was White doing that.
Back in the studio, Carragher says there was an energy about Arsenal tonight. Maybe he thinks that because he spent part of today watching Man United because I didn’t especially see that, though they did stick at it until the end.
Lacazette says the team wanted to win but at the end the main thing was to avoid defeat. He’s not sure why the team stopped playing after taking the lead but thinks they shouldn’t do that – he might be right – but is pleased to score his first goal of the season. Geoff Shreeves is desperate to get a line from him about him noising up the crowd, I’ve no idea why, but one isn’t forthcoming. So Lacazette says not losing shows character, and that’s that.
Mikel Arteta’s reaction to the equaliser was a strange one, arms aloft like it was a winner and part of the plan. Anyway, here’s Lacazette...
“To be fair, Pat Nevin has said himself that he told Bobby Robson he didn’t really want to be a footballer, when on trial at Ipswich,” says Scott O’Brien. “Sounds pretty ambivalent to me.”
Maybe it’s grown on him, like a wart or veruca.
Arsenal, then, move up a spot to the rarefied heights of 12th, while Palace stay 14th, three points behind.
What a finish! I wonder if Vieira will regret making those defensive changes. He’s entitled to expect his team to see out a one-goal lead, but swapping a striker for a defender invited pressure, when previously they were looking a goal-threat and at the very least able to take time out of the game by getting the ball down the other end.
Updated
Full-time: Arsenal 2-2 Crystal Palace
That was a lot of fun. Palace played really well but couldn’t quite see it out; Arsenal were poor but hung in there.
Updated
GOAL! Arsenal 2-2 Crystal Palace (Lacazette 90+5)
Aaaaarrrrggghhh! The corner was cleared, but the ball made its way back to Pepe, who found a much better delivery, Gabriel winning the first header and Kouyate unable to get purchase on his response. White then forced a volley goalwards, Guaita parried, and Lacazette rammed home from two yards! Sickener for Palace! Expletive football!
Updated
90+4 min Palace have disappeared injury-time pretty effectively, but Arsenal have an attack or two left, as Martinelli tries to jink away from two defenders. He wins a throw, which, Tierney will hurl long at Aubemayang, but someone – Kouyate I think– heads behind. This is the last chance, and Pepe takes it...
90+2 min “Is high-end yellow on the Dulux chart?” asks Ron Stack. “More likely Farrow & Ball.”
I wish I didn’t get that.
90+1 min There’ll be for added minutes. Given the circumstances, Palace are looking pretty comfy.
90 min Lacazette knocks the ball into space like he’s playing rugby league, chasing it to the line then cutting back into the meat of the box, where he yeets a shot over the bar.
89 min Pepe dips inside Mitchell and falls over, the home crowd baying for a penalty. Naturally, Mike Dean rejects the appeal as ostentatiously as possible.
87 min Pepe crosses from the right and the ball makes its way to Tierney on the other side of the box. He takes a touch, steadies himself, and hurls every fibre of his being into a heat-seeker that schmeisses the bar with such ferocity that the rebound screeches past Lacazette, waiting to tap it home.
86 min “That Edouard goal reminded me of an off-step floater in basketball,” says Rob Coughlin. By the time the defense realises he’d shot, it’s too late.
One of the reasons Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero and Ronaldo Nazario were/are so good is how early they shoot, and yup, that was that.
85 min Martinelli wanders in off the left, past Ward and Olise, floating a cross to the back post, but Guehi and Mitchell do just enough to put Aubameyang off.
84 min I can’t state strongly enough how well Palace have played tonight. They sat in when they had to, but they’ve run their arses off, tackled with purpose and countered with aggression. This hasn’t been a rope-a-dope, at all.
Updated
83 min Palace replace Edouard, who’s been good, with Tomkins.
82 min “I wonder if Pat Nevin counts as an ambivalent footballer?” says Stephen Kernaghan.”Gigs, art galleries and theatre was where he liked to go after a football match.”
I think that’s other interests. He’s still working in football, so I imagine he likes it.
81 min Arsenal send on Martinelli for Partey.
80 min I’ve now seen the second Palace goal again and White backed off when Edouard ran at him, side on, without showing him wide enough. So the ball went exactly where his body wasn’t.
79 min Partey plays a one-two off Lacazette, then Kouyate clatters him – fairly – and both are hurt but both should be fine.
78 min “Shmice,” begins Edward Benson. “The spelling may be a bit off – shmays, schmais, shmeis, schmeis are apparently the alternatives rather than your version – which sounds like a quiet mouse rather than something hit hard. By the way, I remember my late father laughing heartily to an episode of Bilko where Bilko is playing cards with Hungarians without any knowledge of the game they are playing, winning a hand by slamming a card down as a ‘double shmeis’.”
Yes, I guess I was - at best – deploying Yinglish rather than Yiddish. Schmeis seems most likely to me, not to be confused with zetz, which is slightly harder, and frask, which is slightly softer.
77 min I need to see the goals again, but on neither occasion did an Arsenal centre-back get out to the man on the ball.
76 min Pepe curls into the wall, of course he does, and when the ball is crossed back in, Gabriel heads wide.
Updated
75 min Palace have read Arsenal really well tonight, picking their moments to play on their weaknesses. But Arsenal win a free-kick on the edge of the D, just right of centre; Pepe and Lacazette both want it...
GOAL! Arsenal 1-2 Crystal Palace (Edouard 73)
Hello! Gallagher mugs Lokonga in midfield and Olise seizes upon the loose ball, finding Gallagher again. He drives forward and moves on to Edouard, who’s been a threat all night, and he larrups a shot that Ramsdale is slow to move to and which splatters the bar on its way home!
Updated
72 min Lacazette’s made a difference. Lokonga finds Aubameyang, who touches off for Lacazette, running in behind. He’s in! But as he opens his body like Thierry Henry, Guaita reads him and shoves away because he’s not Thierry Henry.
71 min Another change for Palace, who fancy themselves to nick this: Olise replaces Ayew, who’s put in an important shift.
71 min “They could’ve got Aouar, cheaper too,” says Yash Gupta of Odegaard. “But unlike Pepe he had more than one season. Anyway first time hoping Vieira team wins this.”
He’s the new Fekir isn’t he, someone who’s almost signed every summer until he moves and shows everyone how good he always was.
70 min Nice from Lacazette, making a third-man run and taking a first-time pass from Aubameyang, who’s fed by Tierney. Hitting the line, his cross is a decent one, but it’s an awkward height for Smith Rowe, who misses his kick.
68 min Immediately, Lacazette wins a corner, gesticulating wildly at the fans like they’ve never seen him play. Palace get it away, conceding another, then get that one away too.
Updated
67 min I’m not surprised to see this: Arsenal send on Lacazette for Odegaard, who I imagine will go to centre-forward with Aubameyang going out wide. Palace, on the other hand, go like for like with Kouyate replacing Milivojevic.
65 min “If I was earning £m (fill in a number) a year as a twenty-something year old,” says Richard Hirst, “not sure I’d be too bothered about learning from the best – except about which super car to buy.”
Yes, I feel you – I was an idiot at 20 without the aggravating factors of talent and money – but the basic feeling of competing with your mates and wanting to win makes the majority of players do whatever it takes.
64 min Partey again collects possession outside the box, dipping inside Ayew before going for that same curler, again sending the shot just wide. It’s good to see him further forward though - he’s much more a box-to-boxer than a sitter.
64 min There’s not been as much quality as I expected, but this has been a pretty decent game of “Premier League football”; what I hoped Everton v West Ham was going to be yesterday.
63 min The home crowd try to inspire the home team, White driving over halfway with the ball ... where he’s unceremoniously unloaded.
62 min We’ve seen fairly little of Martin Odegaard so far, and I must admit I was a little surprised Arsenal bought him. I know he’s a decent player, but I didn’t think he did well enough to earn a permanent move, and were I a manager I’d definitely have backed my scouts to find someone better for similar money.
60 min “High-end yellow,” begins Mary Waltz. “Some call them bespoke yellow cards. Wouldn’t be caught dead with an off the rack yellow.”
Is high-end yellow on the Dulux chart?
59 min Random Jordan Ayew fact: his family home in Accra is such a landmark that if you’re going somewhere close in East Legon, you can tell a cab driver to take you to “near Abedi Pele’s house.”
57 min Palace fancy this, Edouard again easing forward – he looked a player at Celtic, far better than Dembele, his predecessor, and he looks a player now. A phalanx of defenders block him off and the ball winds up with Ayew, just outside the box; he lets one fly, but it’s straight down Ramsdale’s throat so he tips over the top and the corner comes to nowt.
56 min Mikel Arteta’s hair is an absolute wonder. It has movement, yet it doesn’t move.
Updated
54 min Looking at the Palace goal again, I wonder how much of the ball Ayew got when tackling Partey. It’s the kind of challenge I’d happily see a ref assume was ok if he’s not sure, but with VAR, that’s much harder to understand – though I’d like to see it again when not also looking at my fingers, my CMS and my screen.
53 min Arsenal immediately step it up, Odegaard finding Smith Rowe who spins beautifully. But he can’t get by the next man and the attack breaks down.
52 min “Looking at that again at half-time,” says Allen Castle of the McArthur foul. “Brutal. That’s his standing leg, too. Could easily have snapped it. VAR supposedly explained it as a ‘high-end yellow card.’”
“High-end,” deaarie me. Did he buy it in Harrods or something?
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Crystal Palace (Benteke 50)
Partey gets the ball from Tomiyasu and assumes he can drag-back his way out of trouble – not unreasonable, given Palace’s lack of pressing. But Ayew pulls the trigger, clattering him with maximum prejudice, and Benteke collects, takes it wide of Gabriel, and slams a fine finish into the far bottom corner. Palace have earned that.
Updated
48 min Fortified by the knowledge that Lokonga is now behind him, Partey steps forward and Odegaard finds him 25 yards from goal, just left of centre. He looks up and unfurls a curler that gives Guaita a nasty shock; the keeper plummets right desperately, but the ball drops a yard or two wide.
46 min As it goes, McArthur was lucky not to get a straight red for booting Saka. My guess is he fudged it enough so that he could say he was trying to shoot, but he really really wasn’t.
46 min We go again. Arsenal take off Saka, presumably because he’s hurt, but presumably also because they’re formation isn’t working. Lokonga replaces him.
“The polar opposite of David Batty is my dad,” says Ben Dunn. “Watches games, even Torquay United, on a fan camera with no commentary. Wakes up early to watch recorded games not knowing the results. Will watch Sunday league live, and when visiting me in Italy, watched a full 90 minutes of old blokes playing on the park pitch. He tried golf, said, nah, football is my game. Knows the line-up and result of all Leeds Utd games in the 60s and 70s. Has the last home programme of Manchester United before Munich. I played rugby.”
I’ve nearly crashed my car on numerous occasions, trying to catch the end of a passage on whichever playing fields I’m driving past.
Half-time email: “Norris Eppes’ missive inspired thoughts of imaginary players,” says Peter Oh. “Named Thierry Ennui, Yawn Vertonghen, Blasé Matuidi, and Peter Boredsley.”
Also: Ivan Prosaic, Paul Incipid, David and Pierce O’Dreary.
Half-time: Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace
Arsenal started reasonably but Palace have been the better side since falling behind. So far, Arteta’s altered formation isn’t really working.
45+3 min Saaaaave! Gabriel heads a corner clear and the drops to Gallhger on the edge of the box, who shmices a volley that’s outswinging towards the near side-netting ... but Ramsdale launches himself thataway to parry! Excellent behaviour all round.
45+3 min “Hidetoshi Nakata presumably preferred a good book,” says my colleague Gregg Bakowski, quoting yerman thusly. “I wasn’t a fan. I didn’t watch on television or have videos or anything. I don’t watch soccer now and when I retire that won’t change. I don’t really understand why people are soccer fans. I don’t like to watch any sport so I don’t understand what makes people do that.”
45+2 min Here comes Ayew again, slinging over a vicious cross that Benteke can’t quite reach, Tomiyasu doing well to shepherd him out of it.
45+1 min The corner goes long to the back of the box, where Benteke is all over Tomiyasu, but McArthur strays offside so the chance he misses, slamming into Ramsdale - who does well to spread himself so quickly – makes no odds.
45 min There’ll be three added minutes.
45 min Again, Palace attack, Ayew drawing Gabriel out to the right and slamming the ball against his shins for a corner.
42 min He is now! The free-kick is headed clear by Tierney, and McArthur shapes to volley it, but when Saka gets there first, he volleys him instead, right on the back of the calf. It’s gratuitous and exhibition stuff, it really is, and there’s a brief convergence of players before they all realise that any misbehaviour and they’ll have Mike Dean to deal with. Saka, meanwhile, accepts treatment then limps off. I imagine he’ll back back soon, but.
42 min It’s a fair whole since Arsenal did anything offensive ... but as I type that, Saka steps in front of Ayew and is booked. The crowd are unhappy, presumably recalling the card that McArthur wasn’t shown.
40 min “While the obvious high-profile players to scout for our ennui-filled team are Bale and Ozil,” emails Norris Eppes, “I’d also recommend our scouts look north ... The entire current outfit at Aberdeen might slot in nicely.”
Unfortunately our photo library doesn’t contain a snap of charlie Nicholas in that luscious Aberdeen JVC kit, so you’ll have to make do with the memory.
39 min ““Footballers who don’t like football,” says John Tumbridge. “I can offer Benoît Assou-Ekotto and David Bentley.”
Yeah, it was a shame that Bentley never quite realised his talent. I wonder if he’d do things differently given his time again.
38 min A fine turn from Smith Rowe sees him upended by McArthur, who avoids a card thanks to the benevolence of the great Mike Dean.
Updated
36 min So far, Arsenal’s adjusted formation isn’t really working. I mean, I know they’re winning and that Pepe, who came in tonight, created the goal, but the impetus is with Palace.
35 min More Palace possession, then when a ball into the box is cut out by Partey, it’s Mitchell who’s alert, chasing onto it while Tomiyasu ponders the meaning of life. He then cuts back for Edouard, who shoots over the top.
33 min Palace are letting Arsenal’s defenders have the ball, which makes some sense, allowing them to get into shape. But I’d be interested to see how Gabriel and Tomiyasu, in particular, handle a bit of pressure.
32 min Back to football-ambivalent footballers, Batigol preferred polo – maybe that’s what the hair was about - and then there’s Gareth Bale:
Gareth Bale posing with a Welsh flag with "WALES. GOLF. MADRID. IN THAT ORDER" written on it.
— DaveOCKOP (@DaveOCKOP) November 19, 2019
Ex Real star Predrag Mijatovic recently said: 'The first thing he thinks about is Wales, then golf and after that, Real Madrid. I haven't spoken to him but that's how he comes across.' pic.twitter.com/WLEWskgVRy
30 min Palace win a free-kick down the right, not far outside the box, which Milivojevic plants directly onto the head of the nearest defender - Gabriel I think.
29 min “Not sure I can do a whole XI of Footballers Who Don’t Actually Like Football,” emails Tom Atkins, “but it would have a spine of Ben White, David Batty and Ian Rush, which would be something a manager could definitely work with.”
Ah yes, Batty is a belter. Football is far too enjoyable for his tastes.
27 min Chance for Palace! Gallagher finds Benteke, who’s lost White – if only he’d seen tape of Gus Caesar – but with the shooting lane open, he can only drag an effort that Guaita dives upon.
Updated
25 min “I love that idea,” says Neil Way. “A bored meeting room full of footballers on a Monday morning for an hour-long update on VAR interpretation, since they need the CPD points otherwise they won’t get this year’s bonus...”
The more I think about it, the more odd it seems. We all do stuff we don’t want to do to get better at our jobs, and watching videos of Franco Baresi defend seems a decent option relative to talks on IT and such.
Updated
23 min Gallagher drives forward, sticks Edouard in behind down the right and collects the return, dribbling a shot that Ramsdale fields easily.
22 min Pepe wasn’t happy with that, but I actually sympathise with Smith Rowe. He needs to score more and it’s important to threaten the goal; I remember the first time I watched Mourinho’s Chelsea live, noticing that almost every move finished with an attempt on goal (many of which featured thrice-deflected goals from Frank Lampard).
21 min For the record, it was Arsenal on the attack, and here they come again, Saka intercepting a loose pass and breaking, finding Smith Rowe who has Pepe outside him, pleading to be slipped in. But Smith Rowe wants to shoot, dragging a low one that Guaita saves easily enough.
21 min Mike Dean waves play on in classically understated fashion ... then again in the same move! What a talent this man is!
20 min Back to Ben White, do footballers not get CPD points?
18 min Ayew unloads Odegaard and finds Milivojevic, then Palace move the ball forward. Arsenal force them back, so they keep it for a bit, then Guehi bursts forward and Mitchell wins a throw close to the by-line. Palace can’t use it to create anything, but they’ve taken control of midfield for the now.
17 min Palace have improved since going behind, Edouard’s ball-carrying looking dangerous. Again, he makes ground, but this time the flag goes up because he’d wandered offside.
16 min “Well if it’s players who show too little interest in their profession you’re interested in,” says Justin Kavanagh, “look no further than the Manchester United first XI. Any first XI he picks, these days.”
Ha! Especially Marcus Rashford, who just last week was told by his manager to focus on football not feeding hungry children, because it’s impossible to do both and football is IMPORTANT.
15 min He’s fine.
14 min Aubeyang is down after chasing back to win possession then being clipped by Milivojevic, running across the back of him. I’m sure he’ll be fine.
13 min They checked to see if that was a penalty, but it wasn’t; it was like a man trying to run through a closed Tube door.
12 min Edouard is allowed to carry the ball a long way and when he knocks inside to Benteke, Ayew nashes around his outside and Palace have a man over! But Benteke opts to ignore the pass in favour of walking through Partey and Gabriel, with predictable results.
Updated
11 min Odegaard rattles Gallagher with a slide-tackle, the kind you like to see but are rarely allowed to see. The ref, though, lets it go and good for him.
11 min Palace have done almost nothing going forward, which i doubt was part of their plan.
10 min I wonder if that goal will settle Arsenal down; they’ve not been fluent so far, but Palace will have to chase a bit more now.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace (Aubameyang 8)
The corner sails by the far post but Pepe and Odegaard work it back into a decent position, Pepe bending hard towards the far post, and though Guaita does really well to tip it away, Aubameyang is ravenous, screeching in to volley home from a tight angle! That’s three in the last three home games for him.
Updated
7 min Already, it looks like Saka or no one, and he looks to shimmy by Ward on the outside, but Ward gets back at him well, sliding in to concede a corner.
6 min But here’s Saka down the left, curving over an inviting cross for Aubameyang, but Andersen is up first to head clear.
4 min Arsenal win a throw down the right, deep inside the Palace half, and Pepe just about wins another off Mitchell and Edouard, then another, before Palace get the ball away. Yes, it’s been a slow start.
3 min Did anyone see what White said last week? He was asked about former Arsenal players, Vieira I think, and said he didn’t have anything to say because he’s not really keen on football, he just likes playing it. I wonder of how many others that’s so – Benoît Assou-Ekotto was famously uninterested – and whether it makes a difference. In most professions, I imagine you learn from watching the best.
2 min White gives it away, but Palace can’t capitalise.
1 min Yup, Saka is on the left. That’s a risk – as it would’ve been to move him to midfield – because he’s his team’s most creative and gamebreaking player and was settled where he was. But here we are.
1 min And away we go!
The players take the knee.
Email! “Most Arsenal fans were expecting Lokonga in, with the added benefit (to some) of keeping Pepe out,” says Charles Antaki. “But this is (yet) another chance for him to make it happen. We’ve seen the ingredients - the athleticism, the skill, the balance, the exquisite ball control, the surprise shot; but never all together in one match or even in one sustained part of one match. Now is (again) the time - and repeat, until it perhaps all fizzles definitively out.”
The alarm bells were a-jinglin and a-janglin at that deal: all that money for a player who’d had one serious season playing in the second-best team in a weak league, couldn’t get a start with Côte d’Ivoire and with no competition for his signature. I imagine he’s playing tonight because Arsenal have struggled for goals this season, but whatever he does, I doubt he’ll be much more than he currently is.
Here come the teams...
Updated
Vieira’s penultimate goal for Arsenal came against Palace, and look how disappointing it was. never will there be a better chance to score with your buttocks, or your teeth, and he spurned it. Shameful profligacy.
He’s on the bench, but I really hope we get a look at Michael Olise tonight, who’s a proper talent. It’s a funny thing really: there are so many ridiculous young players knocking about now that every team can have some.
Vieira tells Sky that having spent nine years at Arsenal it’s emotionally difficult to come back and the fans will sing for him because he was part of a very good generation of players who made the history of the club. But he’s come to the Emirates to win. On Zaha, he says that he came back from international duty ill, he’s not trained, and though he’s getting better he’s not well enough to play so they left him at home.
Arteta, meanwhile, says Vieira deserves the welcome he’ll get and his focus is on scoring more goals, creating more chances and continuing to win games.
On Sky, they’re deconstructing Man United’s latest disaster, and Jamie Carragher has said that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer isn’t as good a manager as Jürgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel. Er, who is? I’m wondering if there’ve ever been so few greats in the game.
On that point, Arsenal also lack reliable scorers. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is getting back to top form, but him aside, only Saka looks especially dangerous in front of goal, and if he’s on the left, he’ll be coming in on his weaker foot. Palace don’t defend that well, though, so there’s that.
On the other hand, Arsenal have struggled to create against teams who defend properly, unwilling to gamble and unable to find the combination play they doubtless practise on a daily. Palace are not a particularly patient team and all the more likeable for it, but that may pay for them tonight.
Arsenal, meanwhile, will look to move the ball quickly – from side to side if necessary – in order to prise Palace open. But they’ll be delighted if Palace come onto them , because they’ve got plenty of pace and invention on the break.
Looking at the match-up, Palace will, I think, look to get the ball wide then men into the box. In particular, I’d expect them to look for Jordan Ayew down the right, so that Edouard can join Benteke in the box, because Ben White lacks physical presence and Takehiro Tomiyasu is still settling into the Premier League. Given Arsenal’s selection, they may also fancy themselves to do well in midfield, because if Conor Gallagher and James McArthur are prepared to run on and gamble, Thomas Partey will have a lot of work to do.
Palace, meanwhile, have a change enforced upon them and it’s a biggun: Wilfried Zaha is ill, so Christian Benteke replaces him, Odsonne Edouard moving to left-wing to accommodate him. Michael Olise and Jeffrey Schlupp, Palace’s scorers in that uplifting 2-2 draw with Leicester, remain on the bench.
Interesting. Sky reckon that actually, Arsenal are playing 4-1-4-1, with Saka on the left; if so, I’m slightly disappointed. Not because he’s been moved from the right, but because though he’s good on the right, I fear if he stays there, he may have to settle for being a top player. On the other hand, I’d love to see if a move into midfield could turn him into a top, top player; his football brain and versatility are off the charts, and as far as I can see he has every attribute to play there. Anyhow, Pepe for Lokonga is the only change to the team which was poor in drawing 0-0 at Brighton; Arteta seems to have settled on a first X, with that I place up for grabs in certain circumstances.
Updated
Teams!
Arsenal (an invigorated 4-3-3): Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, Gabriel, White, Tierney; Partey, Odegaard, Saka; Pepe, Aubameyang, Smith Rowe. Subs: Leno, Lacazette, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Cedric, Tavares, Lokonga, Elneny, Martinelli.
Crystal Palace (an uncomplicated 4-3-3): Guaita; Ward, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; Gallagher, Milivojevic, McArthur; Ayew, Benteke, Edouard. Subs: Butland, Tomkins, Olise, Kouyate, Hughes, Mateta, Schlupp, Clyne, Kelly.
Updated
Preamble
I love the smell of narrative in the evening, which is just as well because the match that awaits us is absolutely dripping with it – even by the exulted standards of “this league”.
Patrick Vieira was and is an Arsenal legend, an exceptional athlete, highly-technical enforcer, and inspirational leader able to do pretty much everything necessary on a football pitch. Once upon a time we called that “a midfielder”, but more recently we’ve become accustomed to qualifying prefixes like “attacking”, “defensive” and “holding”, along with adaptations from abroad like “regista”, “interior” and “doble pivote”. Ultimately, though, the only thing you could really know Vieira by was “Vieira” because there was no one remotely like him.
Anyhow, he returns to the Emirates tonight, but as manager of Crystal Palace; the Arsenal job went to Mikel Arteta, who was and is none of the above. He did, however, play for the club and was respected for his football brain, so those who know him were unsurprised when he went into coaching.
Arteta’s Arsenal team play a style far more convoluted than that of Vieira’s. That might be because he received his football education in Spain and worked for Pep Guardiola; because the game and its fashion has changed; because he doesn’t have players good enough to just get on with things. But whatever the reasons, we’re set for a game of contrasts, Arsenal deploying a patient, lightly constipated approach, while Palace look to keep it loose. This should be a belter.
Kick-off: 8pm BST
.jpg?w=600)
