Pure frustration and Luckless! This sums up this weekend’s 2-1 match defeat against top flight Arsenal. Despite dominating possession and winning countless chances in both half’s of the game – Pardew’s team just could not find the back of the net! Palace fans will still be despondent and sulking on their way to work this Monday morning. Aggravated after despite outstanding play, two bad decisions by referee Mark Clattenburg cost Palace the game that they more than deserved to win a point from.
Arsenal at home was always going to be a big game, but ahead of the match, with the confidence at the club at an all-time high, and faith in Pardew and the boys, no one was worried! However…as the Crystal Palace team line up was announced ahead of kick off – fans were questioning Pardew’s choice of players. Bolasie, Mccarthur and Jedinak were left on the bench and Chamakh was left out completely with no explanation – putting faith in Mutch, Zaha, Gayle and Campbell. The midfield sounded weak and fans were weary that this was not the side to beat Arsenal. In my view this only added to the excitement and build-up of the game – I was excited to not only see the Arsenal team, but a different Palace squad from previous weeks on the pitch.
The ground was rocking as usual on what was a beautiful sunny day at Selhurst – this was short lived after only 7 minutes when Papa Souare made a mindless foul against Welbeck. Clattenburg immediately pointed to the penalty spot, even though the foul was clearly outside the box – Carzola steps up and made it an early goal for the Gunners. This didn’t dampen the atmosphere, the Palace fans got louder and Palace dominated the pitch winning free kicks and making Ospina work hard. Pardews choice of team was certainly standing their own against Arsenal forcing the Gunners to defend deep ensuring play was kept in the Palace half, but we just couldn’t find the end result that was so desperately needed to equalize before half time.
45 minutes in Dwight Gayle worked hard down the left and won a corner, which after a great cross from Zaha falls straight in to Ospina’s arms. This was our first shot on target and looked as if the game was about to turn in our favour. Just as the whistle is about to blow Alex Sanchez crosses to an offside Danny Welbeck who shoots at Speroni, the rebound is caught by Giroud making it an un-deserved 2-0 before the break.
The second half begins with no changes to either side – Palace start the game positively again not looking defeated. Puncheon and Campbell run all over the pitch making crosses for Gayle and Zaha and winning corners, but it looked as if no one wanted the goal. Arsenal seemed to sit back just making use of every counter attack having a further shot on target to nearly make the game 3-0. Bolasie comes on for an injured Frazier Campbell, which then moves Gayle up front and swaps Zaha to the right. Bolasie doesn’t create the danger he usually brings to the pitch and it is not until Palace hero Glenn Murray makes an appearance in the last 10 minutes does it seem that Palace could come back. Fans were right to get excited as Murray scores just 1 minute after coming off the bench and then just seconds later, in a gut wrenching stoppage time he headed against the post. This late chance emphasised just how that little bit of luck could help Palace make that huge difference they deserved – it summed up the whole game! For once we didn’t want the whistle to blow – but it did finishing an unfair and unjust 2-1 Arsenal.
Pardew reiterated the feelings of us all after the game “I’m so proud of the players and I feel so despondent for them to not get anything out of the game. From the start to the finish we had a game plan to threaten them and give them no time. We were superb, but sometimes this game can be very cruel.” In my opinion from the Whitehorse, one cannot see how we could have done anything different – we were a threat to Arsenal for 90 minutes, the ball just would not land in the net. Match stats only show half the story that the fans felt watching the game live – 22 attempts on goal to Arsenal’s 12, 10 corners and 53% possession – Palace were undoubtedly the better team and arguably if we had had a different referee would we have been walking away with a 1-0 win?
Thankfully other games went in our favour yet again keeping us in 13th place and still only 5 points clear of the relegation zone. With two difficult away games coming up at West Ham and Southampton – Saturday’s performance was encouraging despite the loss. In spite of the initial question of Pardew’s line up – it worked, and how proud were we all that finally we had an amazing bench to work even harder for us. All in all after reflection let’s take away the positives – increased confidence and admiration for Alan Pardew’s Red and Blue Army!
