Nick Ames was at Selhurst Park tonight. Here’s his report! Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night.
Mikel Arteta speaks. “I love to win like this … the way we played in the first half against a team that is so difficult … we dominated but conceded nothing … even with ten men we didn’t concede … I am so happy the team responded in a positive way to win the game … it shows how much we want it.”
As for how difficult it will be for referees to be consistent over the subject of time-wasting? “That is something they will have to do … it is going to be difficult for us … we will have to play with ten or maybe nine or eight, depending on where we put the standard … we can maybe play eight against eight, it will be very entertaining.”
As dry as a very large glass of Albariño.
Roy Hodgson’s take. “We gave a very good account of ourselves … we worked very hard … when we had a chance to get into the ascendency when they went down to ten men we took that opportunity … we paid the price for the quick free kick … the player who was going to defend that space was blocked off but the referee and VAR thought differently … we need to get more help in forward areas … but we’re working on that … rules and ideas are thrust upon us … we have to learn to live with them … I can understand why Arsenal might be unhappy about the two yellow cards, I’m sure I would be myself.”
Declan Rice speaks to Sky. “When you look up at the clock with 20 minutes to go and you’re down to ten men against this young, athletic Crystal Palace side, you know it’s going to be tough … these are the places you want to come if you want to win the Premier League, if you want to be up there at the end of the season … you’ve got to show character and pluck out three points I thought we deserved in the end.”
Peter Oh writes: “Re: 90 min +4. Havertz, answering his off-the-ball critics?”
This is how the Premier League table looks after the second weekend of matches.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brighton | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| 2 | Man City | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | Brentford | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | Liverpool | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 7 | West Ham | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 8 | Newcastle | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 9 | Aston Villa | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 10 | Nottm Forest | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 11 | Crystal Palace | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 12 | Man Utd | 2 | -1 | 3 |
| 13 | Fulham | 2 | -2 | 3 |
| 14 | AFC Bournemouth | 2 | -2 | 1 |
| 15 | Chelsea | 2 | -2 | 1 |
| 16 | Sheff Utd | 2 | -2 | 0 |
| 17 | Luton | 1 | -3 | 0 |
| 18 | Burnley | 1 | -3 | 0 |
| 19 | Wolverhampton | 2 | -4 | 0 |
| 20 | Everton | 2 | -5 | 0 |
A dogged three points for Arsenal, the sort of win you occasionally need to grind out if you’re to win championships. They were really made to work for it. They’d been the better team in the first half without finding the final touch: Eddie Nketiah hit the post then sent a lob over the bar with only the keeper to beat. Early in the second, some quick thinking at a free kick by Gabriel Martinelli and Nketiah earned a penalty that Martin Odegaard converted. Takehiro Tomiyasu was ridiculously sent off for taking eight seconds of a throw in, then lightly grabbing Jordan Ayew’s shirt. Thomas Partey clipped Eberechi Eze in the box, but not in a manner that interested either the referee or VAR officials. So both teams have their grievances, but Arsenal shaded it on the balance of play … though such was Palace’s domination during the last knockings, a draw wouldn’t have been an outrageous result either. Mikel Arteta celebrates with both fists raised in the air, while Roy Hodgson smiles ruefully but sportingly.
FULL TIME: Crystal Palace 0-1 Arsenal
Three hard-earned points for Arsenal!
Updated
90 min +7: Rak-Sakyi digs out a fine cross from a very tight spot out on the right. But this time Ramsdale comes out to claim brilliantly. That’ll surely do it.
90 min +6: Mitchell crosses low from the left. Saliba slashes it out of the six-yard box. Arsenal nearly there.
90 min +5: Some head tennis in the Arsenal box. Ramsdale comes to claim. He flaps. The ball drops to Mitchell, who blazes over from a tight angle on the left. It wasn’t the best goalkeeping. Then again, he didn’t give up the easiest chance.
90 min +4: Havertz is booked for kicking away a dead ball.
90 min +3: Eze curls in from the left. Too long. The cross floats out harmlessly for a goal kick.
90 min +2: Arsenal keep Palace pinned back in their own half.
90 min +1: Doucoure is booked for a graceless slide on Havertz.
90 min: There will be seven additional minutes.
89 min: Saka and Odegaard are replaced by Kiwior and Zinchenko.
87 min: Arsenal can’t get out of their penalty area. Palace are swinging the ball around this way and that. Rak-Sakyi and Ayew take turns to flash speculative shots goalwards. Both are blocked and cleared.
86 min: Mitchell curls in a sensational ball from the left. White misses it. Edouard is free, eight yards out! But he can only eyebrow a weak header miles wide right. Palace have had 80 percent of possession during the last 15 minutes.
85 min: Mitchell drops a shoulder and very nearly gets away from Partey down the left. Partey toe-pokes out for a corner, just as Mitchell was making good for the box. The corner’s sent long to Edouard, who busies himself down the inside-right channel but can’t fashion an opportunity to shoot.
83 min: Rak-Sakyi comes on for Ward.
81 min: Seems Tomiyasu really took one for the team. He was booked over a throw that took 23 seconds … though he only had hold of the ball for eight of them himself. He’d taken possession of it from Havertz, who had been holding it for 15 seconds. Factor in the light tug on Ayew, and it’s one of the stranger red cards of our time.
Updated
79 min: Nketiah is fine, but he’s replaced by Jorginho anyway. Arsenal looking to keep hold of what they’ve got.
78 min: Palace pass and probe but there’s no way into the Arsenal box. Eventually Andersen competes for a ball he shouldn’t and high-kicks Nketiah in the chest. Free kick. Pressure off.
76 min: Both sides have something to feel aggrieved out now: the soft dismissal of Tomiyasu, and the penalty for Palace that could have been but wasn’t. Fortunately Twitter is banjaxed these days, so all the post-match rows will be that little bit easier to ignore. Good old Elon!
74 min: Ahamada comes on for Schlupp.
73 min: VAR takes a look at the penalty shout, though. There was contact between Eze and Partey’s leg, but not enough for the VAR to overturn the on-field decision it would seem. No doubt this will be mentioned after the match. Nobody knows anything.
72 min: Eze dribbles gracefully into the box from the left. He nips between Partey and Rice and goes over the former’s leg. No penalty, according to the referee. Both Partey and Odegaard ask for Eze to be yellow-carded, but there’s no punishment for that, either.
Updated
70 min: A free kick for Palace as Havertz really gets a handful of Ayew’s shirt. No booking this time, strangely. Before it can be taken, Gabriel comes on for a visibly annoyed Martinelli. Then the free kick, whipped in from the right, finds Ayew, who bobbles a shot straight at Ramsdale.
68 min: That was the lightest of tugs, but VAR can’t get involved with a yellow-card decision. It highlights the idiocy of Tomiyasu picking up a yellow card for time-wasting over a throw with over 30 minutes still to play.
RED CARD: Tomiyasu (Arsenal)
67 min: Havertz comes in from the left and slashes a shot across the face of goal. From the resulting goal kick, Ayew spins Tomiyasu down the right and feels a light tug on his shirt. Down he goes, out comes the second yellow, and off the Arsenal right-back trudges.
Updated
65 min: Roy Hodgson comes to the edge of his technical area to deliver some beneficial advice to his players in the direct style. At least he’s not starting brawls with the opposition this time.
63 min: It takes a while, but the corner eventually finds Odegaard on the edge of the box. He shins a weird shot towards Sainsbury’s.
62 min: Partey hits a curling cross-cum-shot from the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. Johnstone tips over the bar. Saka to take the corner from the right.
61 min: Eze wants to take a quick free kick in the middle of the park but is stopped from doing so by Havertz. No booking. The Palace fans are furious. Arsenal appear to be doing their level best to press everyone’s buttons right now.
59 min: Partey takes an age to fetch a ball that’s just gone out for an Arsenal goal kick. He eventually rolls it towards Ramsdale in a slow, mannered fashion. Referee David Coote performs the internationally recognised mime for NO MORE OR ELSE. Then Havertz takes a good while to take a throw … before handing it over to Tomiyasu, who also faffs around before receiving a yellow card. The soundtrack segues from irritated whistling to cheers.
Updated
57 min: Eze sends a curler into the top-right corner … of the stand behind the goal. Ramsdale not put to work at all. A waste.
56 min: Doucoure finds Eze on the edge of the Arsenal D with an incisive pass. Saliba clips the Palace man and this will be a free kick in a very dangerous position.
55 min: Palace try to hit back immediately. Lerma has options on the edge of the Arsenal D, but his pass to the right pushes Ayew too wide for the striker’s liking. Ayew has a go anyway, lashing hard into the side netting.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 Arsenal (Odegaard 54 pen)
Odegaard stops mid-run, performs the tippy-toes, sends Johnstone one way, and slots into the bottom left. Arsenal lead!
Updated
52 min: VAR gets involved, as there’s a suggestion Partey had illegally blocked off Guehi on the edge of the box as Martinelli took the quick free kick. But no reprieve.
Penalty to Arsenal
51 min: Martinelli crosses from the left. Ward chests it out for a corner. There’s no question of it being a penalty, though VAR checks to make sure. Palace clear the corner but Saka comes back down the right flank and is wrestled to the floor by Ayew, who wants to be careful as he’s on a yellow card. Martinelli then takes a quick free kick, rolling the ball down the channel for Nketiah, who gets to the ball ahead of Johnstone and goes over the keeper’s arm. Penalty!
Updated
49 min: Arsenal slow it down to the point where Tomiyasu takes what feels like half an hour over a throw. There’s patience and there’s patience. “Crystal Palace’s old head at right back marshalling the defence well. Kai Havertz can’t slip the dogs of Ward,” quips Matt Dony in an email with the subject heading: “I’m not even sorry!”
47 min: Saka crosses from the right, forcing Andersen to head behind for another Arsenal corner. Martinelli takes. Havertz flicks on, but towards nobody in particular. Saka tries to keep things going with a run down the right, but his whipped cross is easily claimed by Johnstone.
46 min: Schlupp executes a cute dragback and flick that sends Mitchell scampering down the left touchline. Mitchell enters the box and lashes a low cross through the six-yard box but there’s nobody there. All it needed was a poke home. Arsenal breathe again.
Palace get the second half underway. No changes. “If it’s any consolation or inspiration to Arsenal’s anaemic attack, former employee Oliver Giroud has scored early to put AC Milan up at halftime over Bologna in Serie A action,” reports Peter Oh.
Half-time advertisement. Your to-do checklist during the break: pint, pie, pee-pee, sign up for Jonathan Wilson’s new soccer email. It’s free! It’s fun! It’s fantastic! It’s guaranteed to annoy dullards who take issue with the word “soccer”! What’s not to love?
Updated
HALF TIME: Crystal Palace 0-0 Arsenal
Arsenal have dominated. Nketiah has hit the post and floated a one-on-one opportunity over the bar. But Roy Hodgson sides are nothing if not stubborn, and so here we all are. Mikel Arteta walks off with the air of a man in a miff.
45 min +1: Edouard strips Odegaard of possession in the centre circle and tears forward. He tries to release Eze into the box down the left channel. White comes across and Eze goes to ground. No penalty. For a second there, Arsenal were in bother as Palace poured forward on the break. Edouard was a bit hesitant with the pass.
45 min: There will be two minutes of additional first-half time. “Off the ball are the key words when talking about Havertz,” opines Jeff Sax. If we get a more tinder-dry missive this season, I’m going to enjoy reading it.
43 min: Martinelli, just to the left of the D, meets a right-wing cross and attempts a spectacular volley. The result is less Henry, more Mudryk.
Updated
42 min: The previously quiet Odegaard turns up the volume. He drops a shoulder to make space down the inside-right channel and leathers a shot towards the top right. Johnstone tips acrobatically over the bar, and nothing comes of the corner. That was Arsenal’s first shot on target.
41 min: Saka dribbles at Mitchell down the right and makes just enough space for a shot. He skies it. “Please reassure Arsenal fans that Havertz is doing wonderful work off the ball, as a decoy, as an inspirational whisperer – anything,” asks Charles Antaki. “Otherwise, the hook at half-time?” We all know how this half is going to end now, don’t we.
39 min: In fact everyone takes the opportunity to stop and have a quick drink.
38 min: Play stops as Edouard clatters Odegaard on the back of the head … but only because White had been climbing on his back. All accidental, and happily everyone’s quickly back up and ready to go again.
36 min: Rice’s contact lens is clearly back in position, because he spots a narrow opening down the inside-right channel, dinking cutely to release Nketiah into the box. Nketiah lobs Johnstone but clears the bar as well. A huge chance.
Updated
35 min: When the game restarts, Saliba takes a heavy touch and allows Ayew to barrel clear down the middle. He redeems himself with a perfectly timed sliding tackle as Ayew enters the box and cocks his leg to shoot. What a challenge! The home fans want a penalty kick, but Saliba got the ball, and VAR confirms it.
34 min: “I need a mirror!” Declan Rice shouts a request to his bench. But he’s not after checking out his quiff. A contact lenses has moved. On comes the physio to help him out.
33 min: Odegaard has been quiet by his own standards. But here he is, needlessly caught offside upon receiving a simple pass down the right flank. He cocks his head back in irritation, things not quite going his way this evening so far. There’s time.
31 min: During the last five minutes, only three percent of the play has taken place in the Arsenal final third. The visitors beginning to impose themselves.
29 min: Nketiah elegantly spins Andersen and Guehi down the inside-right channel, then storms into the box. He shoots across Johnstone, but agonisingly off the bottom of the left-hand post and away. The spin to create a chance out of nothing deserved better reward. Lovely play.
Updated
27 min: Ayew gently clips Havertz and is rather harshly booked. Seconds earlier, Nketiah went down while trying to burst past Ward. He wanted a penalty for a push from behind but the referee wasn’t so interested in that, correctly so.
25 min: Ward sends Ayew into acres down the right. This time, Ramsdale deals with the resulting cross authoritatively. “Mention of Barry Mooncult really does take me back,” writes Julian Menz. “Flowered Up used to frequent our pub. Top lads, It’s On is a lost classic.”
Updated
23 min: Arsenal play it around in a style Arsene Wenger used to consider sterile.
21 min: Doucoure strides down the middle, drifting slightly to the right before creaming a shot towards the top left. Always high, but there was plenty of feeling behind that one.
20 min: A gentle game of head tennis ends with Rice sending the ball wafting into Johnstone’s arms like a feather.
19 min: Martinelli takes. Lerma heads behind for another corner. Martinelli to take again.
18 min: Tomiyasu looks better going forward, and he powers his way down the left, skipping past a couple of challenges before winning a corner.
16 min: Edouard probes down the left and enters the Arsenal box. White falls over. The ball hits him. Palace claim a penalty for handball but the ball hit the defender’s hip.
15 min: Ayew looks to have the beating of Tomiyasu. A shake and a shimmy and he’s away again down the right. He whips in a fierce low cross. Ramsdale parries out to the edge of the box. Doucoure and Eze get in each other’s way as they try to latch onto the loose ball, and Arsenal clear. The keeper got away with one there.
Updated
14 min: Nketiah dribbles down the right and looks for Saka in the middle. A reversal of roles, but the same result: a corner that leads to nothing. Everything is coming down this Arsenal right wing, though.
13 min: Arsenal slow it down again, but this time without the burst, allowing more time for idle selection chat. “Kieran Tierney has to get away from Arteta as fast as he can now, before his career disappears completely,” suggests Edward Rae. “Hopefully, there is an escape plan afoot although it sounds as though KT’s own people were at least partly responsible for him not being at Newcastle now - would have been a great destination. Regardless, run for the hills now, Kieran, run! These people care nothing about you.”
11 min: Saka cuts in from the right and has a dig. It’s an easy one for Johnstone. “When on song this Arsenal make chances better than any team in the league but still don’t have a reliable or reliably fit finisher,” writes Leo Yadda Yadda. “When their first choice back four is available they’re as dependable as you could want. Arteta seems to be experimenting with formations during these early ‘easy’ games: I don’t think he’s put out what he considers his strongest 11 yet (with no disrespect to Palace intended).”
10 min: Arsenal slow it down a bit, just because they can. Then they suddenly turn up the speed with Saka bursting down the right. As he enters the box he fails to combine with Nketiah and Palace bundle clear.
8 min: Ayew barrels down the right, latching onto Edouard’s pass. He twists Tomiyasu this way and that before hammering a low diagonal drive goalwards. Saliba does his job to block.
7 min: Saliba, currently being toasted by his fans with Tequila, launches long. Nketiah tries to take the ball down on the edge of the box but gets overly physical with Andersen and the whistle blows.
5 min: Saka takes it himself but Palace clear their lines easily. One big blooter forward. Edouard scampers after it, and would get there first, clear on goal, had Ramsdale not read the danger very early. The keeper comes miles out of his area to intercept and lay off to White. A nice brisk start by both sides.
4 min: It’s all Arsenal during these early exchanges. Saka sashays into space down the right and crosses for Nketiah. He can’t find his team-mate but does win the first corner of the evening.
2 min: Havertz dribbles his way down the right then spots Martinelli in an absurd amount of space to the left of the D. He finds his man. Martinelli is momentarily one on one with Johnstone in the Palace goal, but opts to take a touch rather than a first-time shot and a good chance is gone. Palace were completely exposed there.
1 min: Arsenal … whose kit is more Key Lime Pie than Banoffee, now I look more closely … launch it long through Ramsdale, but Palace deal with it easily enough. A magnificent atmosphere tonight.
Arsenal get the ball rolling … but only before Selhurst Park pays a tribute to former Palace boss Trevor Francis. A minute’s worth of the warmest applause. Here we go, then.
Here come the teams! Crystal Palace wear red and blue halves, while Arsenal sport a vague callback to the early-90s, a swirly yellow-and-black effort that’s less banana, more banoffee pie. Selhurst Park is jumping, as it usually does, its denizens Glad All Over. Kick-off soon!
Our pre-match postbag is positively bulging with two emails. Teeming, it is, and here they both are.
“Pre-season I guaranteed a Man City title repeat. But I think losing KDB is going to hurt City more than some think, giving the Gunners a chance” – Mary Waltz
“Find it remarkable that Gabriel, mainstay of one of the best defensive partnerships in Europe (with Saliba) is benched two games running. Can’t just be ‘tactical surprise’ but also surely can’t be going to the Saudis. If so, deeply depressing and - with the Timber injury - unravels a lot of Arsenal’s good work early this window” – Joshua Hardie
A welcome reminder of how both teams did on the opening day.
During the Monday Night Football build-up, Gary Neville was asked about Manchester United’s handling of the Mason Greenwood situation. United announced earlier today that the striker will “recommence his career … away from Old Trafford.”
They’ve finally got there. I think it was clear from day one, for me and anybody who saw the evidence that was initially released, that he wouldn’t play for Manchester United again.
I would say that the process in getting there has been pretty horrible. When you have significant and difficult situations like this, it requires authoritative leadership, that comes from the very top and Manchester United don’t have that.
On an issue like domestic abuse and violence against women, there needs to be independence. It shouldn’t be that Manchester United are the judge and jury on such a significant issue, not just for themselves but also for the game.
My view is, on issues of this importance and severity, they should be dealt with independently by a panel because it’s been clear that Manchester United have not had the skill and the ability to deal with this situation properly. It’s been well above their grade of experience and ability.
Updated
Mikel Arteta takes his turn to be interviewed by Sky. “Today’s the second game of the season, the Premier League is still very early. So the focus is about doing what we have to do to earn the right to win the game, and have the chances and probability to win the game. Be more courageous. Having constant threat. Taking risk. Taking initiative. Playing a high rhythm.”
Roy Hodgson talks to Sky Sports. “We’re looking forward to it. They were very good last season and they look as if they’re going to be good this season as well. But we’re playing at home. It’s a good test for us as well, to see where we are at this early stage of the season. There are certain matches which have a bigger clang, maybe, than others and Arsenal have always been that category, so tonight is a red-letter occasion. And I’m really quite excited to see what sort of performance we can put on and where that performance would take us.”
The 76-year-old also reflects on his touchline rumble last weekend with Sheffield United’s Max Lowe, who is exactly half-a-century his junior. “I don’t know what I was doing there. The tackle took me by surprise. It’s one of the hazards of getting too caught up in the game, of being too concerned about what your team is doing and how the game is going, that suddenly when a tackle comes in, it takes you totally by surprise. I suppose my only excuse is that I’ve not been tackled for the last 40 or 50 years!”
No changes for Crystal Palace. Roy Hodgson names the same starting XI that ran out 1-0 winners at Sheffield United on the opening day of the season.
Arsenal make just one change from their opening-day 2-1 victory over Nottingham Forest. Takehiro Tomiyasu comes in at right back, replacing the injury-stricken Jurrien Timber.
The teams
Crystal Palace: Johnstone, Ward, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell, Lerma, Doucoure, Ayew, Eze, Schlupp, Edouard.
Subs: Tomkins, Clyne, Richards, Ahamada, Matthews, Gordon, Riedewald, Rak-Sakyi.
Arsenal: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Saliba, Partey, Odegaard, Rice, Havertz, Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli.
Subs: Gabriel, Smith Rowe, Kiwior, Trossard, Jorginho, Vieira, Raya, Nelson, Zinchenko.
Referee: David Coote (Nottinghamshire).
Preamble
When Crystal Palace and Arsenal meet, goals are almost guaranteed. Last season the Gunners did the double over their London rivals, winning this fixture 2-0 and the return at the Emirates 4-1; the season before that Palace thumped Arsenal 3-0 at Selhurst having earlier in the season been unjustly held 2-2 up north. Pull back the focus and the point still stands: the clubs have met each other on 53 previous occasions, and there have only ever been five nil-nil draws. In conclusion: goals, goals, goals! So should tonight’s game end scoreless, you can blame me for tempting fate by bringing it up. Kick off is at 8pm BST. It’s on!
