Patrick Vieira says his Crystal Palace side knew to put immediate pressure on Alexandre Lacazette whenever he got the ball during Monday night’s 3-0 win over Arsenal at Selhurst Park.
Goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta, Jordan Ayew and Wilfried Zaha earned Palace a memorable victory over the Gunners, who failed to leave much of an impact on the London derby and dented their hopes of Champions League qualification in the process. They ended the night with almost 70 per cent possession but could only muster three shots on target, with Lacazette and midfielder Martin Odegaard having particularly difficult evenings for the visitors.
Lacazette lost possession eight times during the 90 minutes and was caught offside twice, as well as having just 32 touches of the ball - less than any player that started the game for Arsenal, including goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale. He also mustered three efforts off target and failed to test Vicente Guaita once, with Palace keeping their fourth clean sheet in a row by constantly putting the Gunners’ forwards under pressure.
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Eagles centre-backs Marc Guehi and Joachim Andersen had equally impressive games and barely allowed Arsenal a sight on goal, with full-backs Tyrick Mitchell and Nathaniel Clyne keeping compact before quickly closing down players when they received the ball towards goal.
“Today was about defending well as a team,” Vieira said in his post-match press conference. “Putting pressure on the centre-backs, putting pressure on the full-backs to not allow them to find those players in between the line because if there is a space between the line, we will be in trouble. Any time that they managed to find those players we always had one of our back four who jumped out and try to put pressure, especially on Alexandre Lacazette.”
Mikel Arteta was less than impressed with what he saw from his Arsenal side over the 90 minutes and apologized to the club’s fans during a post-match TV interview for the way they performed in the London derby, brandishing the display as ‘unacceptable’.
"Congratulations to Palace for the game they played but we made it impossible for ourselves with the way we competed,” he told Sky Sports. “You have to be physical and run and then you earn the right to play. We were really inconsistent on the ball and that is unacceptable. We were poor, especially in the first half. I apologise to our supporters.
"We didn't have the presence today or the composure to dominate the situation so that is what I'm most annoyed with. Some days you are not there and you are late all the time. They got on top of it and had a good atmosphere and we could not get out.”
