Key occasions
Nick Ames has already filed his match report, so I’ll go away you with that. Thanks on your firm; see you tomorrow for extra soccer. It’s again!
“Not bad for an opening match,” says Mary Waltz. “Both sides had their moments, match wasn’t settled till the 85th minute. Reasonably tense.”
Agreed. It wasn’t fairly Sheffield Wednesday 2-3 Big Ron’s Aston Villa, however it was a good begin. Arsenal have been spectacular, notably in defence. Plenty of fine groups gained’t win at Selhurst Park this season.
Full time: Crystal Palace 0-2 Arsenal
Arsenal start the Premier League season with a stable victory at Selhurst Park. Gabriel Martinelli’s Twentieth-minute header was a deserved reward for a blistering begin wherein Gabriel Jesus caught the attention. Arsenal needed to work a lot more durable within the second half – one other debutant, the centre-half William Saliba, was terrific – earlier than Marc Guehi’s late personal purpose gave them a two-goal cushion. They look fairly, fairly good.
90+3 min A change for Arsenal – Albert Sambi Lokonga replaces Martin Odegaard.
90 min Three minutes of added time. The second purpose has knocked the stuffing out of Palace.
87 min Saka’s shot hits Guehi and goes behind. Palace have made a double substitution – Will Hughes and Malcolm Ebiowei for Eze and someone else, Ayew I believe.
So a lot for Arsenal settling for 1-0. They labored the ball properly from left to proper, the place Saka ran on the backpedalling Mitchell simply inside the world. He switched the ball onto his proper foot and hammered a cross that was headed into his personal internet by Guehi on the close to publish. It was a extremely tough ball to defend.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-2 Arsenal (Guehi personal purpose 85)
It’s throughout now!
84 min “I think the most egregious mispronunciation of a footballers name was De Bruyne by Martin Tyler on FIFA17,” says Jon Tattersall. “I almost took the game back to get a refund.”
83 min Arsenal double substitution: Kieran Tierney and Eddie Nketiah for the 2 debutants, Zinchenko and Jesus. Both have been spectacular.
82 min Eze goes over proper on the sting of the Arsenal space. Zaha collects the unfastened ball, will get to the byline and has a cutback booted clear.
81 min A fierce cross from Zaha, Palace’s greatest participant, flashes throughout the Arsenal space. Clyne retrives it on the far facet and places it again into the center. Xhaka heads clear.
81 min Arsenal seem like they’ve settled for 1-0, and in equity they’re defending fairly comfortably. Saliba and Gabriel look actually stable within the centre of their defence.
80 min “No, it’s Xhaka that is the most mispronounced name in the Premier League,” says Per Horfelt. “He is of Albanian descent and there it is prounced ‘Jaka’. Ask my wife, she is Albanian.”
79 min Eze’s free-kick is headed down by Andersen and hacked clear by Gabriel.
76 min “Anything can change and everything is possible,” says Yash Gupta, “but as expected this Arsenal team doesn’t look threatening.”
That’s a bit harsh, although they’ve definitely light since that blistering begin.
75 min Another Palace substitution. Luka Milivojevic replaces the tiring Doucoure in midfield.
74 min Doucoure has cramp. which permits all the opposite gamers to have a drink.
73 min “Roberto Firmino by an absolute country mile,” says my colleague John Windmill, replying to Joe Johnson’s query after 68 minutes. “Firminho or even Firminio. Drives me (and by extension, my wife) up the wall.”
72 min Zaha cuts inside from the left and has a shot blocked by White.
72 min Here’s that likelihood for Eze initially of the second half. The go from Zaha, a sudden thrust of the dagger, was scrumptious.
71 min Andersen has performed some majestic passes tonight, notably out to Zaha on the left.
70 min White performs a terrific go inside Mitchell to search out Saka. He strikes into the world, however Mitchell recovers properly and ultimately Saka sprays excessive and broad from a really tight angle.
68 min “Hi Rob,” says Joe Johnson. “The beginning of a new season, the mind limber, craving stimulation. Reliably informed by a Norwegian friend that Ødegaard should be pronounced ‘Erdegord’. I wonder: which Premier League footballer’s name is the most egregiously mispronounced?”
I do not know, however am reminded of when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had a shot at purpose for Manchester United, and the (normally) nice ITV commentator Brian Moore shouted “Shoals!” What made it much more spectacular is that Paul Scholes wasn’t on the pitch on the time.
66 min Schlupp collects a unfastened ball, surges into the world and has a shot blocked by Partey. If Arsenal don’t win this sport they may lament a barely passive second-half efficiency.
64 min For half an hour it regarded like Arsenal would run away with this; since then it’s been a really even sport. Meanwhile, Clyne is booked for a foul on Martinelli.
62 min A Palace nook results in a scramble within the space, with Ramsdale saving a shank from his personal participant Gabriel. It wouldn’t have counted as a result of Anthony Taylor had blown for one thing or different.
60 min White is booked for a foul on the more and more influential Zaha.
59 min: Chance for Odegaard! Jesus steals the ball off the dawdling Guehi and costs into house down the best. He squares it to Odegaard simply inside the world, however Odegaard inexplicably tries to search out Martinelli when he ought to go for purpose himself. The ball deflects to Jesus in an offside place, and he has a shot blocked by Andersen. Jesus’s shot wouldn’t have counted; Odegaard’s would, if solely he’d had one.
58 min The first of many, many, many, many substitutions on this Premier League season: Jean-Philippe Mateta replaces the disappointing Odsonne Edouard up entrance for Palace.
56 min Odegaard whips it over the wall and some yards broad of the close to publish. An honest effort.
55 min Mitchell fouls Saka 22 yards from purpose, a good method to the best of centre. Odegaard may fancy this…
53 min Zaha’s cross hits White and deflects onto his arm. No penalty. Zaha retrieves the ball, beats White within the space and is emphatically tackled by Saliba. He’s having a wonderful debut. And Zaha, after a sluggish begin, seems bang up for this.
