Arsenal continue to be the team to beat in the Premier League. Look back on a vital win with the best facts and Opta data in our Arsenal vs Crystal Palace stats page.
Eberechi Eze scored his first Premier League goal for Arsenal against his former club Crystal Palace on Sunday to earn the Gunners a 1-0 win that extends their lead at the summit to four points.
Oliver Glasner’s Palace were expected to provide a real test for Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, considering they went into the weekend having recorded the most shots on target (43), xG (17.4) and big chances (33) in the Premier League.
And although Arsenal didn’t exactly romp to success, they got the job done thanks to Eze, with the hosts once again profiting from a set-piece.
It wasn’t a classic, but Mikel Arteta won’t have cared in the slightest as Arsenal extended their lead atop the table and took full advantage of Manchester City and Liverpool losing elsewhere this weekend.
The pattern of the contest in the first half wasn’t particularly surprising. Arsenal saw a lot of the ball against a Palace side who looked to counter quickly, though clear-cut chances weren’t frequent at either end.
In the first 15 minutes, Arsenal saw 84% of the ball but they didn’t manage their first attempt of any note until the 33rd minute.
By that point, Palace had already shown why they don’t need lots of the ball to threaten.
Ismaila Sarr tore into the right side of the penalty area after good work from Jean-Philippe Mateta, but the Senegal international opted to shoot instead of squaring to a teammate and his effort was blocked.
A comparable situation saw Daniel Muñoz test David Raya, though the Colombian was deemed to have been offside. Still, it was a warning for Arsenal.
But Arsenal’s set-piece prowess will always mean they’ll always have moments even if not playing particularly well, and such a situation yielded the opener in the 39th minute; Declan Rice’s deep free-kick was nudged back into the danger area and, typically, former Palace star Eze was on hand to send an improvised volley into the back of the net.
Not only was it his first Premier League goal for the club, but it was Arsenal’s 11th league goal this term from set-pieces, two more than any other team.
That figure almost became 12 early in the second half, with Gabriel Magalhães heading against the crossbar at a corner.
Arsenal exerted control a little more effectively in the second half as opportunities for Palace to counter were even rarer than before the break.
In fact, they didn’t record another shot until the 70th minute, and even that didn’t cause David Raya in the Arsenal goal any real bother.
As the latter stages approached, Palace did get greater encouragement to attack from an Arsenal side who sat back more, but a late equaliser was not forthcoming.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Arsenal vs Crystal Palace stats from their Premier League meeting at Emirates Stadium.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
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