In the early morning of April 5, Beijing time, in the 31st round of the Premier League, Arsenal lost 0-3 to Crystal Palace, giving up the fourth place in the league to the city's sworn enemy Tottenham Hotspur. Meanwhile, multiple Arsenal main players could miss the next game due to injury.
At Selhurst Park on Monday night, Arsenal lost 3-0 to Crystal Palace in a crucial battle for the fourth place, which also directly led to the city's rivals Tottenham Hotspur beating the Gunners with a margin of five goals on goal difference to reach the top four. Arsenal's troubles are far from the defeat itself, with multiple main players likely to miss the next more crucial fixtures due to injury.
Just on Monday morning, some media revealed that Arteta may be out of the main lineup in this campaign, and the final starting list was released, but the outside world found that not only the main right-back Fuan Jianyang continued to be absent, but also Tierney on the left side was missing, and the position was replaced by Tavarez. Pepe, on the other hand, was unable to play due to illness, which further weakened arsenal's squad thickness.
As a result, Arsenal were already 2-0 away from home less than 25 minutes into the opening game. Crystal Palace's two goals occurred in less than 10 minutes and were both set-pieces. In the 16th minute, Gallagher took a free-kick in front of him, Crystal Palace completed the header relay inside the Arsenal penalty area, Anderson nodded the ball back into the middle and Mattta flicked his head to score. Eight minutes later, Crystal Palace threw the ball out of bounds on the left and Anderson took the ball in front of him and immediately tore apart Arsenal's other side of the defence with a straight pass. Gabriel flew into the air and Tavares stared at Jordan Ayo, who easily extended the score to 2-0.
Arsenal have been well versed in set-piece defence this season, but the two goals conceded in this game are puzzling. Especially the second goal that was easily penetrated by Crystal Palace. Chris Sutton, who works as a commentator at the BBC, was also puzzled: "You don't know why Gabriel did this exaggerated and useless unblocking move, and you don't know why Tavares was as unsafe in the defensive zone as the first to concede a goal. In fact, their entire team lacks aggression, like a team in other leagues in the Premier League. Perhaps Tierney's absence is not just a folding of the main left-back for Arsenal, their mental attributes and attitudes are also very different from those of the team before the international match. ”
Arteta decisively took down Tavares, who made many mistakes in the first half, at the end of the half and replaced martinelli. However, the Brazilian youngster did not play at left-back, and it was eventually Xhaka who returned to his relatively familiar cameo position. It was also the second time Tavares had been replaced early after joining Arsenal, after he had also been substituted in the first half for a poor FA Cup against Nottingham Forest. Sutton thinks Tavarez's problems are less obvious: "His performance today can certainly be described as bad, but who can say how strong arsenal the arsenal team is in the first half. ”
Arsenal have created a slight threat after this series of adjustments, but the front has not been able to turn their chances into goals. Instead, Crystal Palace had a penalty in the 73rd minute, Zaha was tripped by Erdegaard in the box, and then Zaha personally took the penalty to make the score 3-0. The Arsenal side made matters worse, with Thomas Patti injured in the midfield scramble and the team's hopes of a counter-attack came to an abrupt end.
After a three-goal defeat in this game, Arteta first faced injuries. He revealed that Tierney's injury does not look very optimistic: "He will find a specialist to diagnose it tomorrow, when we will know the specific circumstances of this injury, but from the preliminary scan results, it is not optimistic, all we can do is wait." As for Thomas, who was injured in the second half, Arteta's news also discouraged Gun fans: "He hurt his previous position this time, which really deserves our attention. ”
For the game itself, Arteta had to apologize to the fans who had high hopes: "I have to apologize to our fans, because today's performance was very bad, especially in the first half, you have to be active in the fight and run to qualify for smooth passing, but we are too unstable in this regard, which is really unacceptable. ”
Arsenal will return home for brighton at the weekend. But as Sutton put it, with the team swept up by injuries again, it's hard to expect Arteta to pull out a stronger squad than this one: "You don't yet know if the damage caused to Arsenal by this game will have a follow-up effect, a potential threat is that Tierney may not return anytime soon, Xhaka has to make a cameo at left-back, and Thomas's injury has caused Arsenal's main midfield combination to disintegrate in an instant." Arsenal fans need to be mentally prepared, and they may see Lokunga and Naini paired in midfield at the weekend. ”
Wen | Liu Chuan
Edit | Fat Cat