Imperious Özil Deserves Better Finishing But It's Three Welcome Points

Match Review: Crystal Palace 1 Arsenal 2 - Premier League 16.08.15

Arsenal are off the mark at the second time of asking, as we edged by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. Traditionally it’s been a tricky but productive fixture for us and it proved so again, as our failure to capitalise on an excellent start made for a nervy finish to the game. The all important thing though is just that we got the three points and moved on from our opening day debacle, especially with a clash with Liverpool looming next week.

Wenger made two changes, when he could have made many more. Bellerin returned at right back, while Chamberlain was replaced by Alexis. Cazorla was moved back to the middle, meaning Ramsey shifted out to the right, while Oliver Giroud was fortunate to keep his place as the leader of the attack.

We started in excellent fashion, causing a lot of problems for a Crystal Palace defence that seemed half asleep. Alexis should have had two goals in the opening 10 minutes and Giroud also had a good chance to give us the lead. Palace looked in trouble and it looked only a matter of time before we made a chance count. 15 minutes in and the pressure told. Özil received the ball down the left, after a lovely Alexis pass and fizzed in a cross. I think the cross was intended for Alexis to flick a header in, but it was too quick for him. Thankfully, Olivier Giroud put his horror show against West Ham behind him and showed magnificent skill to quickly readjust his body and almost bicycle kicked the ball into the far corner. Özil’s cross was excellently weighted and directed to avoid the defenders, but Giroud had a ton of work to do and showed great class to steer it home.

We settled into a nice rhythm and looked in total control for a while. Then we of course gave up a stupid goal from a nothing situation. Puncheon played an unchallenged cross-field ball to Bolasie, who took it down, laid the ball off for McArthur and he teed up for Ward. The right back produced a moment of quality, firing in to the far corner with such pace and accuracy that Cech had no chance. Koscielny will have to have a serious look at himself for this goal, he turned his back on the shot, barely trying to block it. We’d enjoyed almost total domination, but somehow we found ourselves level at the break.

We nearly conceded again after the break, as Wickham’s near post run saw him crack the ball against the post. The defence is looking shaky at the moment and it can’t be doing much to help Petr Cech settle in. There were times when he came for crosses looking a little nervous, perhaps a sign that he isn’t fully confident in the four in front of him. Improvements are going to be needed, especially from Koscielny, who looks as though he hasn’t quite come back from holiday.

Despite our jitters at the back, I think we were the better team for most of the game. Some of the passing we produced was beginning to look like the Arsenal that finished last season in style and if we can reach those levels again, we’ll be right up there. Another key factor will be Alexis, who was a major force in the game, despite still looking some way short of fitness. He’s a genuine match winner and it was his contribution that got us over the line in this game. Despite being one of the smallest players on the pitch, he produced a towering aggressive header from a Bellerin cross. The ball may have been sneaking in to the far corner, but Delaney intervened, trying to clear the ball but only finding the top corner of his own net. Although the nature of the goal was unfortunate for Palace, I don’t think anyone can claim we didn’t deserve it.

Overall we weren’t too nervy in seeing out the game and perhaps should have made our lead greater with the counter attacks we were able to produce as Palace pushed forward. In fact I think that’s the main thing we have to take from this game, we are excellent going forward, but we are awful at taking our chances. We had twenty shots in the game, but only seven on target and of those, only one resulted in a goal. Mesut Özil was in imperious form, carving out opportunities at will, but he often saw his creativity go to waste. Really that’s been the story of his Arsenal career, he’s created 150 scoring chances and yet he only has 15 assists. With probably the best creative midfielder on the planet in the team, we should be scoring a lot more goals.

Still, it’s early days and I was encouraged by how we lifted our level when we needed to. Liverpool next Monday will be stern test though and they have the forward players to trouble our nervy back five. We’ll need to be creative and clinical, because we’ve already seen that an off day can produce disastrous results. Losing a second home game in a row, so early in the season would be a hammer blow for our season, while a win would be a massive confidence boost and a platform from which to build a title push.

Teams

Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1)
McCarthy, Ward, Delaney, Dann, Souare, McArthur (Y) (Bamford 80’), Cabaye, Zaha (Chung-yong 76’), Puncheon, Bolasie (Mutch 45’), Wickham
Subs
Hennessey, Mariappa, Chung-yong, Jedinak, Murray, Mutch, Bamford

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin (Y) (Chamberlain 64’), Cazorla, Alexis (Arteta 75’), Özil (Gibbs 83’), Ramsey, Giroud
Subs
Ospina, Debuchy, Gabriel, Gibbs, Arteta, Chamberlain, Walcott

Player Ratings

Cech - 7/10 - Looked slightly nervy, but dealt with most things well
Bellerin - 7/10 - Certainly first choice at right-back
Mertesacker - 7/10 - A solid showing from the BFG
Koscielny - 6/10 - Very poor for their goal, but played a bit better in the second half
Monreal - 8/10 - Dominated Bolasie, Zaha and Puncheon, excellent once again
Coquelin - 7/10 - Thought he was harshly carded and actually had a solid game
Cazorla - 8/10 - Looks our best player in the deeper midfield two, our dynamo
Alexis - 8/10 - Somehow still able to be a game changer when still short of fitness
Özil - 9/10 - Near perfect, an assist, five chances created and only one pass misplaced
Ramsey - 6/10 - Still not finding that form that propelled him into the spotlight
Giroud - 7/10 - Scored a wonderful goal and had a much better showing than last time out
Subs
Chamberlain - 6/10 - Had chances on the break but didn’t impact the game
Arteta - 7/10 - A very solid and promising cameo, will be an important squad player
Gibbs - N/A

http://twitter.com/sambangsdrums Tell us what you think! If you agree, or have a different view, please leave a comment in the comments section or why not write a response or your own article on YouWrite?

Think you know Arsenal? Test your Arsenal knowledge on our trivia page and see if you can beat the top score.

Don't forget to like us on Facebook, add us to your G+ circle and follow us on Twitter.