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Balance restored in second half – and we have a spark from Gabriel Jesus

Suburban Gooners Logo Suburban Gooners Logo I said it as I was on my way home last night from The Emirates, but that was your archetypal ‘tale of two halves’ from The Arsenal last night, from attacking sense, I mean.

Arteta suggested he would do a bit of rotation and I had a feeling that Tierney would make his way back in to the side; he’s a Scottish international, he’s back fit, we still have no sign of Calafiori and Lewis-Skelly had played the last two games. This was a good time for KT to get some minutes, along with some rotation options. So in came him, Kiwior, Jorginho, Nwaneri, Merino, Sterling and Jesus from the more regular crowd, supplemented by first team regulars Partey, Timber at centre half, Trossard left wing. I’d talked about fringe players showing us that they should be a consideration for starting and this was their opportunity to prove it.

So to go a goal down within the first few minutes was the opposite of what you want to see. It wasn’t even a well worked goal either and I think Kiwior will be having nightmares about that goal for a while to come yet. Rouite one, over the top, he committed the cardinal sin of letting it drop and Mateta took his goal well.

And then it became a game that has been very familiar to us as Palace did what both Fulham and Everton have done in the previous two weekends and retreated in to a low block, telling Arsenal to “go on then, see if you can break us down”. And that first half was frustrating. It felt like a continuation of previous frustrations; we didn’t move the ball quickly enough, we couldn’t find a ton of incisive passes in behind and Palace succeeded in frustrating us. At halftime I was saying to the gents I was with that it’s always difficult to assess a half like that when there’s such an early goal, because the narrative and game state completely shifts. Would Palace have retreated so much and let us have the ball if they hadn’t have been a goal up? I’m not sure. I also think we weren’t that terrible. Sterling looked a little more lively, the back line was barely troubled and I thought KT was getting in to some good positions. We just – and this will feel familiar – didn’t have that final finish. Trossard blazed over, Nwaneri was popping the ball around but finding space difficult and Gabriel Jesus looked a little lost up top, if I’m honest.

So I decided to step in with my commentators curse and said to the gents over a halftime pint “I think Jesus is done, sadly”.

Oh, he wasn’t done.

That was his best half of football in…well…I can’t remember when. Football is a results and end product game, I know that and you do too, so quite often a performance is coloured by the fact you won or a player scored. But what we got in that second half from Jesus was more than we’ve been seeing. I haven’t seen him deliver movement like that in a long time. For the first goal it was a really clever run in behind and the deftest of finishes. I haven’t seen the goals on TV yet but the second one, whilst offside apparently, was still a very good finish. as was the third, drilled in to the bottom corner to make what felt like the game safe for The Arsenal. He was alive again and after he was so poor on Saturday, this felt like the exact game to bring back to life a player like Gabriel Jesus. The confidence this will give him will, I think we all hope, help to bring him back to the pack as an option. Because before last night, I think most of us agreed he was drifting away from this team.

In the morning I’d suggested large-scale rotation, but I think what we saw yesterday was an example of why you can have too much rotation. So come full time I was happy to be proved very wrong, because the introduction of Saliba at the back allowed Timber to slot back in to right back, which gave us more balance. Then the introduction of the skipper Odegaard created that incision and craft that an understandably raw Nwaneri didn’t have on the night. This kid is going to be a big star for us, I’m sure, but when you’re that age you have night’s like he had last night.

And the impact was almost immediate, as Sterling hit the bar almost straight after halftime, although I’m pretty sure it was easier to score than miss. But that was a sign of things to come and we dominated that second half. Palace did get one back, with a standard “ex-player comes back to haunt Arsenal” move in the shape of Eddie Nketiah, but we held on for what was ultimately a deserved win. And now we have a semi final to look forward to against either Liverpool, Newcastle, the Scum or Man United. Any of those will be rather tasty for differing reasons.

That was the first round of our double header against Palace, with us travelling to them this weekend and I’m trying to work out if this gives us any psychological edge ahead of that game. I suspect maybe a smidge, but not much, as it will be a different Arsenal side that lines up and they’ll give us more of a hostile environment under the latest of Selhurst Park. There will be more stress put on our back line this weekend than yesterday, but again that could be dependent on how the game shapes in the early stages like yesterday.

A few final points I wanted to pick out before I crack on with a day of work:

Interesting that Palace left three up for the first corner or two against us; I wonder if that will be a tactic we’ll see more with teams? (Although they didn’t do that all game)

Saka’s assist on the second goal was sublime – it was instant reaction from a player who delivers almost every time he’s on the pitch these days

I did enjoy the traditional “you’re not singing any more” from the home crowd on 74 minutes – Christmas is a time for tradition and that was certainly an old one from the songbook that I enjoyed

Finally – sarcastic ‘kudos’ to the referee for adding on five minutes of extra time given there was no time wasting whatsoever last night, yet against Everton at the weekend they gave four minutes. One of the big things that proper bugs me, that.

But we’re through, we’ve picked up a win, Jesus has a much needed confidence boost and we need to carry that in to the weekend.

Catch you all tomorrow.

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Gooner born in 1982 from Harlow, Essex, now living in Uxbridge. I say what I see - frequently wrong, but hey, it's just an opinion piece, right? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.