Defensive Palace Soundly Beaten By Arsenal

Roy Hodgson set up a team to frustrate the opposition with five across the back but it did not prevent the hosts from inflicting another defeat on the Eagles and end their own poor run of form.

MATCH INFORMATION

• 12.30pm – 20^th January 2024
• Arsenal 5-0 Crystal Palace
• Emirates Stadium, Hornsey Road, London N7 7AJ

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 1 Sam JOHNSTONE, 22 Odsonne EDOUARD, 23 Malcolm EBIOWEI, 44 Jairo RIEDEWALD, 45 Tayo ADARAMOLA

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 1 Aaron RAMSDALE, 7 Cedric SOARES, 24 Riess NELSON, 76 Reuell WALTERS

TEB VERDICT

Not sure that we expected anything different but perhaps being soundly beaten was worse. Roy Hodgson looked a beaten man at the full time whistle and it would not be a surprise if he walked away from the club. In all honesty, he should never have been put in this position in what is a wasted season. We say wasted, when it could actually turn out an awful lot worse.  

As for the game, you could argue that Jean-Philippe Mateta and Ebere Eze come out of that with any credit, but even the latter was at fault for giving the ball away for that fifth goal.

The Holmesdale Fanatics made their feelings clear with the banner being held up in the final minutes, and it is hard to argue the point. There is over a week now until Palace host Sheffield United at home, and it is clear a lot of hard work needs to be done and some fresh legs needs to be injected into this squad.

It is no disgrace to lose to one of the top sides in the division, but to lose in such a manner and show very little is a big concern. The sooner Jordan Ayew and Michael Olise return the better, but the question is, will that be under Hodgson?

POST GAME QUOTES

ROY HODGSON

“The worst thing is that three of the goals all came from corners, two from theirs and one from one of ours and they started a very quick counter and 3-0 down you are up against it. I decided to give some of the younger players a chance on the basis we played in midweek and some of the players had worked very hard, but 3-0 down against a rampant Arsenal it was asking for trouble and asking for the two quite simple goals at the end.

The fact is two of our major attacking players are not here at the moment, Eze is just coming back from injury. Our attacking potential is a bit less at the moment than it would be normally but I don’t think we created anywhere near enough chances. Arsenal were very good. Whatever we would have done and whatever team we put on the field we would still have been struggling to contain them as they do have so much talent and are very well drilled.

It is a struggle. There’s no doubt we have to keep looking over our shoulder and we are in a relegation battle, no question about that. I believe the team and club and the group of players we have are more than good enough to get us away from the relegation zone. Of course at the start of the season we had hoped we would build on the end of last season.”

MIKEL ARTETA

“Very pleased, clean sheet and five goals, win the game and performance. I had a really good feeling after we left the stadium after Liverpool, the performance was there but the results were not. Today we were much more efficient in the opponents’ box particularly than the last few games. Last few games we had moments playing better than today but this is about scoring goals.

Set pieces are a big part of us, especially against teams that want to defend deeply. It is a good way to win games. The success of last season was the amount of players who scored more than 10 goals and we are going to have to do that again. We used moments of the game we knew could exploit really, really well. The subs did really well and had a big impact. Everyone was really focused.

This is the second part of the season we want to tackle it with a lot of aggression and motivation. I would like to play three days after but it is what it is! We will keep preparing and we must continue to do better and improve as a team.”

MATCH STATISTICS

POSITION IN THE TABLE (at the final whistle)

UPCOMING FIXTURES

30/01/24 Sheffield United (h) – Premier League 8pm

03/02/24 Brighton (a) – Premier League 3pm

12/02/24 Chelsea (h) – Premier League 8pm