If you were told one of the teams at Selhurst Park was chasing Champions League football, you would not have guessed Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta’s side arrived at Crystal Palace knowing that a point would take them back into the Premier League’s top four, after Tottenham had leapfrogged them on Sunday by thumping Newcastle.
Arsenal needed to respond, but instead they put in one of their worst performances in recent months as they collapsed to defeat.
Make no mistake, Palace were worthy winners. But they surely would not have expected to have it this easy.
Jean-Philippe Mateta gave them the lead after 16 minutes and from there they never looked back, with Arsenal barely laying a glove on them.
Jordan Ayew doubled the lead before half-time and Wilfried Zaha’s second-half penalty wrapped up the win.
There were, perhaps, some warning signs for Arsenal before kick-off when it emerged Kieran Tierney was not fit to feature at all. The left-back has a knee injury and there are fears his season is over.
Nuno Tavares was handed a start in his absence, his first since Arsenal were knocked out of the FA Cup by Nottingham Forest in January. Nuno lasted 34 minutes that day.
He at least got to half-time on this occasion, but his performance wasn’t much better.
In fairness, the whole of Arsenal’s defence was at sea. Gabriel, who has been a rock all season, was all over the place and that was summed up by the second goal. He went flying out to intercept a pass, but missed it and Ayew was able to steam through to score.
Ben White, his centre-back partner, wasn’t much better. He clumsily brought down Zaha for Palace’s opener and from the resulting free-kick Mateta headed home. It was weak from Arsenal, soft-centred, and those are adjectives they thought they’d left in the past.
Nuno was hooked at the break, however Arteta could have taken his pick of any of his starting XI. Thomas Partey’s radar was pretty scrambled and his passing completion was under 70 per cent.
Martin Odegaard was equally absent and his technique left him down time and time again, which seems crazy to say given his performances recently. The fact he brought down Zaha for a penalty summed up his night.
There were small improvements from Arsenal in the second-half, Eddie Nketiah was bright off the bench and Gabriel Martinelli did well too.
They gave Arsenal the faint glimmer of a comeback, with Nketiah hitting the post and Smith Rowe and Odegaard fluffing their lines when good chances presented themselves.
At the full-time whistle, Arsenal players headed over to their fans and apologised for the performance.
They were greeted by support and their top-four hopes are, of course, still alive and in their hands.
Saturday’s clash against Brighton, however, has now suddenly become a huge match and one where Arsenal must give the response they needed to tonight.
