On the face of it, a 2-0 win and a clean sheet for Arsenal away to Crystal Palace is a great result to kick off the new Premier League season. But that does not quite tell the whole story from the match.
Mikel Arteta admitted his side needed to dig deep and show resilience at Selhurst Park, particularly in the second half when Patrick Vieira's side were chasing an equaliser following Gabriel Martinelli's first-half opener. The points were sealed when Marc Guehi diverted a dangerous ball from Bukayo Saka past Vicente Guaita late in the game.
But before that late settler, Palace were in the ascendency for long periods. Aaron Ramsdale came to the rescue on two occasions, saving a fairly tame header from Odsonne Edouard in the first half before making himself big in a one-vs-one situation to block Eberechi Eze's shot, with the Palace star knowing he should have scored.
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However, there were a couple of occasions that stood out in a negative manner for Ramsdale. He was almost caught out in the first half when Edouard closed down an attempted long-range kick, only for the ball to fall kindly for the Gunners.
And then later in the second half, he dropped what looked a regulation catch from a set-piece, only to recover it before any Palace players could capitalise.
These were not the biggest indiscretions on the goalkeeper's part, they were moments picked up on by Sky Sports pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher, who noted that the "erratic" moments from Ramsdale could have ended up costing the Gunners their hard-earned points.
"It’s his concentration," Neville said after the game. "He performs like a young goalkeeper where they lack a bit of maturity, they want to get involved too much.
"There’s sloppy little things, there’s corners - simple catches and he drops them. You do raise the hopes of the [opposition] crowd, the team if you’re just fumbling things.
"He made some good saves but just get rid of the bugs that will stop him developing to what he really can be, those little bits tidied up or he’ll always look scruffy. There’s four, five things there tonight that [Arteta will] look at with his goalkeeper and think they could cost him, let’s nip them out of the game."
"It was a typical Ramsdale performance where there’s good things but you still think a little bit erratic at times," Carragher added. "Almost too involved in something in the game, that (first-half pass to Zinchenko) was just 'wow'.
"But a few minutes later, he just lifts the opposition, gives panic to the opposition. Couple of times when he comes for a cross where he [doesn't] catch it but he’s really quick to react and get on top of it."
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