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Freepik
Morning all.
If you took a cursory glance at the Premier League table yesterday morning you will have seen Sunderland sitting second in the table. I wondered when Sunderland were last in the top two of the top division in England, probably when Len Shackleton was their star performer, the Jack Grealish of his day.
But it has certainly been a season of new faces so far, or maybe a new wave competing for the top European spots in England during the early part of this refreshing and healthy campaign. Both Bournemouth and Crystal Palace have surprised the pundits, not that surprising the pundits is surprising in itself, but it’s also what makes the Premier League so unique and so special amongst its competitors across Europe.
Liverpool are in the midst of a wonderful freefall. How long it will last we don’t know but for me it is a beautiful thing to behold and very satisfying seeing all those entitled Scousers eating large portions of humble pie. Man United are showing a bit of a revival, whilst Chelsea have finally reverted to type and are once against the music hall club of football. However, amongst all the good news remains Man City, silently carving their way through their opponents like a shark, looking as if they are back to if not their best, then quite close to it as they have craftily emerged as the major threat to North London’s finest.
We have been here before haven’t we but this isn’t the Arsenal 22/23 vintage, this squad has a focus about it I’ve not seen since 03/04 and if Haaland the cyborg doesn’t score then City tend to stumble and they duly stumbled at Villa Park yesterday afternoon – it was glorious.
Palace had had 48 hours less rest than the Gunners but that didn’t show in their performance as the Eagles gave our boys one of their most testing afternoons of the season so far. Arsenal are a big team physically but Palace have some big and quite rapid players of their own. The opening exchanges were very much a case of both teams sparring, Arsenal looking for openings, Palace looking to hit us on the break. They nearly succeeded early as Mateta bundled Saliba out of the way, a rarity in itself, but fortunately for London’s finest the best defence in europe smothered any chance of an opportunity being created. Arsenal’s superior technique should have made the difference but it didn’t despite some clever footwork from Timber, Trossard and Saka.
Henderson in the Palace goal was untroubled until the 25th minute when a foul on Timber provided a free kick opportunity but the Palace defence dealt with it in an almost Arsenal’esque manner. Arsenal took until the 33rd minute to record a shot on target, when good work from the tireless Gyokeres and Rice created a chance for Trossard.
The deciding moment arrived around 39 minutes when a Rice free-kick following a needless foul on Timber was driven to the far post where a clutch of giant footballers awaited. In the middle of them His Highness The King of Brazil rose like a soaring eagle to head the ball back towards the penalty spot and wouldn’t ya know there was Eze who adjusted his body to fire the ball into the Palace net. He celebrated quietly and the team went back to work. The game continued much as it had for the remainder of the half before the referee signalled it was time for oranges.
Arsenal increased the tempo in the second half and had Palace on the rack several times but we just didn’t get that piece of luck to give us that breathing space of a second goal and so it remained tense. Mosquera had replaced Saliba at half-time and seamlessly fitted in between Jurien and The King. Around the 50th minute a corner reached Gabriel at the far post and his header hit the bar, it came out and both Rice and Trossard had attempts blocked but it was chaos in the Palace box – it was great.
Gabriel sent a long pass to Trossard who almost set up Bakayo but it was cleared off of his toe as he came steaming in to finish.
Then Palace brought Eddie on around the hour and changed their system and after that Arsenal lost some control, Rice was everywhere, Gyokeres was chasing every lost cause and Calafiori was just Calafiori but the nerves started to jangle, City were losing 1-0 at Villa Park but it could all change in a moment.
Arteta made a few changes taking off Saka, who looked a tad jaded for Martinelli who injected some pace and prevented Palace squeezing up too much. The last 20 minutes was a role reversal with Palace pressing and Arsenal defending and looking to put Gyokeres and Martinelli away. Slim margins but no cigar this time.
There was a few hairy moments but the best defence in Europe held firm. Merino (Rice) and Hincapie (Calafiori) came on at 82 and Myles (Eze) on 87, they were the finishers as the clock was ran down plus 7 minutes of added time but both Arsenal and Villa held on and we can therefore enjoy not only that extra hour in bed but a 6 point cushion over Haaland City and 7 points over Liddlepool.
We march on…
**By Kev**