Away Day Specialists Crystal Palace Shock The Gunners And Benteke Scores His First Premier League Goal, In Open Play, For 444 Days! Match Highlights. Player Ratings. Manager Comments & Stats.
By: Marc Gingell:
Away Day Specialists!
After watching Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United lose Arsenal had the chance to climb to third in the Premier League. But they were up against Crystal Palace.
On away form Crystal Palace are 6th in the Premier League two points behind Chelsea, three behind Manchester United, and four above Arsenal. On the flip side of that their home form sees them down in 19th place and 28 points behind Arsenal who are third with their home form rankings. The ingredients were all there for something interesting to happen in this game!
Match Details
| 21-04 | Emirates Stadium | Arsenal (4) | 2-3 | Crystal Palace (12) |
| KO:16:00 | ATT: 59,929 | Mesut Özil 47′ | Christian Benteke 17′ | |
| REF: J Moss | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 77′ | Wilfried Zaha 61′ | ||
| James McArthur 69′ | ||||
Christian Benteke
So we have a home form team, only beaten at home by Manchester City in the first game of this season, a team with great away day form, and Christian Benteke. Benteke did score the 5th goal, a penalty, when Crystal Palace beat Leicester 5-0 at the end of April 2018. That penalty came in the 90th minute and Palace players let him take it as a confidence booster. Before that, he scored in the 1-1 draw with against West Ham at the end of January 2018.
Benteke has missed 17 games this season with a knee injury and since his return, he’s been used more as a bit player. He’s only completed 90 minutes once.
Big Weight Off Benteke’s Shoulders
In this game he completed 77 minutes but, an hour before that, a big weight lifted off his shoulders. After he’d been failed on Palace’s right, just inside Arsenal’s half, Luka Milivojevic fired in a free kick towards Arsenal’s penalty spot. Unmarked, and being played onside by Carl Jenkinson, his diving header beat Bernd Leno from just outside the six-yard box. The big man looked very happy as he celebrated another Premier League goal at last.
And An Assist
Without an assist this season Benteke put that right on 61 minutes when Wilfried Zaha latched on to his flicked header. Shkodran Mustafi, who seemed to try and blame his keeper, should have done a lot better and he had a really poor game.
James McArthur headed in goal number three after Scott Dann had headed on Milivojevic’s corner into the danger area.
Arsenals Goals
Arsenal’s goals came in the 47th and 77th minutes from Mesut Özil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Özil took a pass from Alexandre Lacazette and clipped over Vicente Guaita for a similar goal he conceded against Manchester City last week. He might need to look at standing taller in similar situations.
For Aubameyang he came in from the right on a good run and tried to play in Lacazette. Palace’s Joel Ward intercepted but he could only direct the ball back to Aubameyang who finished from just outside the box. Aubameyang now has 19 Premier League goals for the season and is joint top for the Golden Boot title with Sergio Agüero and Moh Salah.
Player Ratings
Arsenal: Leno (6), Koscielny (6), Mustafi (3), Mavropanos (6), Jenkinson (5) Guendouzi (6), Elneny (6), Kolasinac (6), Ozil (6), Aubameyang (7), Lacazette (6)
Subs used: Iwobi (6), Maitland-Niles (7), Torreira (6)
Crystal Palace: Guaita (7), Wan-Bissaka (8),Dann (8), Kelly (9), Ward (7), Kouyate (7), McArthur (7), Milivojevic (8), Meyer (7), Zaha (8), Benteke (7)
Subs used: Ayew (N/A), Townsend (N/A)
Man of the match: Martin Kelly
Opta Stats
- Crystal Palace avoided defeat in both league meetings with Arsenal in a campaign for the first time since 1979-80.
- Arsenal suffered their first home league defeat in a London derby since January 2016 (0-1 v Chelsea) – they were unbeaten in 13 such games prior to this loss (W10 D3).
- Crystal Palace have scored 29 goals away from home in the Premier League this season; their most in a single campaign in the competition and joint-most overall in a top-flight season (also 29 in 1991-92).
- Benteke made his 200th Premier League appearance in this match against Arsenal. He scored 46 goals in his first 100 games in the competition, but has netted just 24 in his second 100 appearances.
- Benteke scored his first goal for Crystal Palace since April 2018 (vs Leicester), ending a run of 19 appearances, 25 shots and 358 days without netting.
- Zaha has scored eight away goals for Crystal Palace in the Premier League this season – only Harry Kane (11) and Jamie Vardy (10) have netted more in the competition.
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