Arsenal were let down by a “horrendous” 116-touch star performance at Palace

Nothing but a win will do arsenal now in his search for the Premier League title

Chelsea and Liverpool are flying high, but even with Manchester City seemingly out of the running, the Gunners need to be perfect.

However, recent weeks have been far from that as they have dropped four points against Fulham and Everton in the last two weekends.

Well, one weekend when the boss Mikel Arteta celebrated five years in charge of Arsenal, they gave him the perfect gift with a rampant 5-1 win at Selhurst Park, defeating Crystal Palace for the second time this week.

The north London side defeated their London rivals in the Carabao Cup just a few days ago, but this win certainly had more meaning given their performances in the league in recent weeks.

Like at the Emirates on Wednesday evening, Gabriel Jesus he was the hero again.

Performance of Gabriel Jesús against Crystal Palace

What a week this has been for the Brazilian striker. Against Palace in midweek, the former Man City star scored a top-class hat-trick and got his first goals at home in just over a year.

I was still waiting his first Premier League goal since Januarybut that came on Saturday when Jesus put on another brilliant display.

Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and Declan Rice also got on the scoresheet, but it was Jesus who stole the show, scoring the opener with a neat finish from around six yards.

His second goal was an even better strike. Following a corner, Thomas Partey put possession into the path of the Brazil international who wrapped his foot around the ball and slotted it past Dean Henderson.

This has been a historic week for Jesus and, with Bukayo Saka cruelly out with a hamstring injury in the first half, the importance of his contributions in the final third will only increase.

He probably could have had more than two too with the 27-year-old hitting the post, which led to Havertz’s goal and then sticking a simple one-on-one chance straight at Henderson in the same phase of play that Martinelli found the net of

It was another brilliant performance, but the same cannot be said for one man at the back.

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Performance in numbers

Want data and statistics? Football FanCast’s Performance in Numbers series brings you the latest match analysis from across Europe.

Saliba’s performance in numbers against Crystal Palace

During the last years, Guillem Saliba he has been known as one of the best center backs in the league. He is Van Dijk’s natural heir as the premier centre-half in the Premier League.

Just a few days ago, he was also celebrated as one of the best in the world, with FIFA’s The Best award selecting him in their Team of the Year.

Kylian Mbappe even suggested the defender he should have been the french player of 2024given his impeccable displays for club and country.

So his performance at Selhurst Park on Saturday evening was rather perplexing with that in mind, with Jamie Carragher commenting on Sky Sports summing things up well by suggesting he had a “horrible first 20 minutes”.

Because of Saliba, Arsenal could have conceded twice in those moments. For Ismaila Sarr’s equaliser, the Frenchman dropped back and couldn’t get close enough to the Palace striker, who was able to fire past David Raya under very little pressure from the Gunners defence.

A few minutes later the defender almost cost Arteta’s a second goal. Saliba was caught in possession by Sarr who then set up Jean-Philippe Mateta.

A goalscorer against the north Londoners just days earlier in the Carabao Cup, he strung his lines here, allowing Raya to come out and smother the striker’s brilliant goal-scoring chance.

A Saliba error is a rarity, but getting two in one game is almost unheard of. Truth be told, it was perhaps his worst half for the club so far GOAL which gave him a match rating of 4/10 following the full-time whistle.

The numbers didn’t paint the prettiest picture of their evening either.

In fact, Saliba did not make a successful tackle in the entire match and he won only one of his four duels on the grounda statistic that summed up just how bad the Frenchman was this weekend.

With games coming up thick and fast over the festive period, Arsenal will need to rediscover their ability to keep clean sheets again. A fit Saliba – not the one they got on Saturday – will be key to that.

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