Arsenal left disappointed by ‘horrible’ 116-touch star at Palace

Nothing but a win will do for Arsenal now in their quest for the Premier League title.

Chelsea and Liverpool are flying high, but even with Manchester City seemingly out of the race, the Gunners have to be perfect.

However, they have been far from that in recent weeks, dropping four points against Fulham and Everton in the last two weekends.

Well, on a weekend where boss Mikel Arteta celebrated five years in charge of Arsenal, they gave him the perfect gift with a riotous 5-1 victory at Selhurst Park, defeating Crystal Palace for the second time this week.

Just a few days ago, the north London side defeated their London rivals in the Carabao Cup, but this victory arguably had greater meaning given their performances in the league over the past few weeks.

As in the Emirates on Wednesday night, Gabriel Jesús was the hero again.

Performance of Gabriel Jesús vs Crystal Palace

What a week this has been for the Brazilian striker. Against Palace in midweek, the former Manchester City star scored a top hat-trick and scored his first home goals in just over a year.

he was still waiting his first Premier League goal since Januarybut that happened on Saturday when Jesus put on another brilliant display.

Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and Declan Rice also scored, but it was Jesus who stole the show, scoring the first goal with an elegant finish from around six meters away.

His second goal was even better. Following a corner, Thomas Partey put possession in the path of the Brazil international, who rounded the ball with his foot and hammered it past Dean Henderson.

This has been a historic week for Jesus and with Bukayo Saka cruelly ruled out with a hamstring injury in the first half, the importance of his contributions in the final third will only increase.

It’s entirely possible he could have had more than two as well, as the 27-year-old hit the post leading to Havertz’s goal and then had a simple one-on-one chance straight at Henderson in the same phase of play in which Martinelli found the goal. net of.

It was another brilliant performance, but the same can’t be said for a man behind it.

Saliba’s performance in numbers vs Crystal Palace

In recent years, William Saliba has been known as one of the best central defenders in the league. He is the natural heir to Van Dijk as the Premier League’s most outstanding centre-back.

Just a few days ago, he was also celebrated as one of the best in the world, with FIFA’s The Best award selecting him among its Team of the Year.

Kylian Mbappé even suggested the defender should have been the France Player of 2024given his impeccable performances for club and national team.

Therefore, his performance at Selhurst Park on Saturday night was quite baffling considering that, with Jamie Carragher commenting on Sky Sports summing things up well by suggesting he had a “terrible first 20 minutes”.

Thanks to Saliba, Arsenal could well have conceded twice in those moments. For Ismaila Sarr’s equaliser, the Frenchman dropped back and failed to get close enough to the Palace striker, who was allowed to shoot at David Raya with very little pressure from the Gunners defence.

Minutes later, the defender was about to cost Arteta’s men the second goal. Saliba was caught in possession by Sarr, who then slipped to Jean-Philippe Mateta.

Top scorer against the North Londoners just days earlier in the Carabao Cup, he made a mistake here, allowing Raya to come out and smother the forward’s brilliant scoring opportunity.

One mistake by Saliba is a rarity, but making two in one game is almost unheard of. Truth be told, it was perhaps his worst half for the club so far, with GOAL that gives him a match rating of 4/10 following the final whistle.

The numbers didn’t paint the best picture of their evening either.

In fact, Saliba did not make a successful tackle in the entire game and He only won one of his four ground duelsa statistic that sums up how bad the Frenchman felt this weekend.

With games coming thick and fast over the festive period, Arsenal will need to rediscover their ability to keep a clean sheet again. A fit Saliba (not the one they got on Saturday) will be key to that.