Winners and Losers: Crystal Palace (a)

On Monday, in the wake of a draining international break and Spurs’ 5-1 win over Newcastle, Arsenal traveled to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace. As ever, three points were of the utmost importance to stay in the driver’s seat in the top four race. Instead, they conceded three goals. Palace capitalized on a poor collective performance by the back four to surge to a two-goal lead before Wilfried Zaha added the third from the penalty spot. The result by no means ends Arsenal’s chances for a top four spot, but things have gotten that much more nervy. Below are two Winners and five Losers from a tough away day.

Winners

Sambi Lokonga

Things went from bad to worse when Thomas Partey limped off with a thigh injury late in the match. With Granit Xhaka already in at left-back, Sambi came off the bench to take over from the Ghanaian. Despite not having played in quite some time, Sambi looked quite good as a lone six. Yes, Palace were sitting deeper at this point, but he took the game to them and made the midfield his own for the remainder of the match. If Partey misses time, perhaps Sambi will be able to provide some respite.

Playing Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe together

After starting the match on the bench, Martinelli came on during halftime in place of Nuno Tavares. After a productive international break, the Brazilian added some threat going forward for the Gunners. He and Smith Rowe, who dropped into the left eight position, combined well on their flank and helped engineer some good moments for their team. Considering their respective scoring and creative abilities and how much Partey and Odegaard were targeted by Palace, playing Martinelli and Smith Rowe in the same XI might have some merit during the run-in.

Losers

Alexandre Lacazette

There isn’t really much more to say at this point. He doesn’t provide goal threat. He doesn’t make runs in behind the defense. His linkup contributions have been over-indexed. Lacazette provides so little at center forward now that for several matches in a row, defenses have not even bothered marking him out of the game, choosing instead to leave him open and sell out to defend his teammates. Opponents tell you about your team, and what they have told Arsenal is that Lacazette is not rated. The Frenchman needs to start giving center-backs a problem to think about, or something new needs to be tried up top.

Martin Odegaard

Odegaard had a bad game at Selhurst Park. His first touch seemingly left him, he failed to put one of the best chances of the match on target, and Palace largely marked him out of the match. With how well the Eagles’ approach to nullifying the Norwegian worked, it is surely something other teams might try. Odegaard is still an elite talent and one of Arsenal’s best players, but he will need to work to avoid that outcome occurring again.

Cedric Soares

After a months-long Cinderella story while filling in for Takehiro Tomiyasu, Cedric turned back into a pumpkin against Palace. Zaha and his Palace teammates targeted Cedric’s side of the defense and got a lot of joy from doing so. Kieran Tierney now being out for the remainder of the season could also impact Cedric negatively. Xhaka is needed in midfield and Nuno Tavares, despite a woeful display, is likely the only option left. However, with the way Arsenal play, balance is required and both full-backs can’t simultaneously play offensively. Cedric may retain his place for another couple games until Tomiyasu returns. But as soon as the Japanese defender is fit, Cedric may be relegated back to the bench.

Gabriel

Tavares didn’t help him much, but Gabriel did not look ready to play. The Brazilian was unfocused and mistake-prone to start the match, missing his header for the first Palace goal and completely overcommitting when trying to intercept the pass for the second. Given that he has recently become a father, it is understandable that he wasn’t at his best. But his errors on the day were costly.

Nuno Tavares

It was a tough place to make his first start for a while, but Tavares was likely the worst player on the pitch in the first half. He simply was unable to execute the conservative role he was asked to play. For the first goal, he allowed himself to get bullied into ducking under the ball. For the second, he failed to pick up Jordan Ayew when Gabriel was taken out of the play. It wasn’t surprising to see him hooked at the interval. But as the understudy to Tierney, whose season is now over, Tavares needs to step up and show that he has a role to play. Otherwise, Xhaka or Saka will be pulled out of their best positions to compensate for him.

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