Arsenal vs. Crystal Palace match thread

[sprites]

Arsenal played their strongest available team, didn't outplay us and had very few shots on target and relied on a set piece to score. They didn't find us easy to play against and will roll over some lesser teams with ease.
To claim Kamada is making Wharton a worse player is ridiculous, I guess you want Hughes to replace him, the problem with Hughes is he gets booked most games and is restricted.

It’s not ridiculous in the slightest. On the contrary, it’s observant and absolutely the case. Watch how many times in the final 20 mins Hughes wins the ball and plays first time quick pass to Wharton, giving him the time to pick a beauty. I rewatched and counted seven.

Without Hughes, Wharts is running around having to do that job too.

 

[Painter]

Every time I see Sosa he looks average at best. As for Uche, there has to be a reason why Glasner has not used him more so far but he doesn't play like for like in Pino's position. If you are going to use Uche it more likely to be Sarr or even JPM that will make way. For Getafe he played as a number 10 or an out and out striker a couple of times

Check out Uche's loan agreement, then you will know.

 

[pssguy]

Check out Uche's loan agreement, then you will know.

Where is it available for viewing?
General consensus is that it requires him to make 10 starts for Palace to be required to make it permanent. Nothing to stop him being used as a sub much earlier in games

 

[Living In Hope]

Late to post, but I wanted to add my observations, having been at yesterday's game. I thought we were very solid in the 1st half, and without being creative going forward, we were marginally the better team, with their goal coming out of the blue. We then struggled for the next 25 minutes, with Arsenal dominating, before coming back into it in the final quarter. Overall we could have played all night without scoring, but on the other hand we could quite easily have come away with a 0-0 draw against a team who in my view are very likely to win the league. So no embarrassment or disaster, but we were very limited going forward.

I thought our best player was Wharton, who was the only one to show any creative class, but others have given him little credit. Lacroix was excellent in defence. Personally I thought Kamada was largely anonymous, and like most others Pino had a poor game, constantly bullied off the ball, and Sarr was also disappointing with misplaced pass after misplaced pass. We looked much better when Hughes and Nketiah came on. 5 minutes for Uche to make a difference was, as others have said, nonsensical, but I thought he did as much as he could in that time. I would like to see the reserves play at Liverpool, and then against Brentford the usual back 6, with Hughes partnering Wharton. Might be inclined to start Nketiah in Pino's place too, as we seem to have enough defensively for a home game against Brentford.

 

[TrickyboyVn]

Late to post, but I wanted to add my observations, having been at yesterday's game. I thought we were very solid in the 1st half, and without being creative going forward, we were marginally the better team, with their goal coming out of the blue. We then struggled for the next 25 minutes, with Arsenal dominating, before coming back into it in the final quarter. Overall we could have played all night without scoring, but on the other hand we could quite easily have come away with a 0-0 draw against a team who in my view are very likely to win the league. So no embarrassment or disaster, but we were very limited going forward.

I thought our best player was Wharton, who was the only one to show any creative class, but others have given him little credit. Lacroix was excellent in defence. Personally I thought Kamada was largely anonymous, and like most others Pino had a poor game, constantly bullied off the ball, and Sarr was also disappointing with misplaced pass after misplaced pass. We looked much better when Hughes and Nketiah came on. 5 minutes for Uche to make a difference was, as others have said, nonsensical, but I thought he did as much as he could in that time. I would like to see the reserves play at Liverpool, and then against Brentford the usual back 6, with Hughes partnering Wharton. Might be inclined to start Nketiah in Pino's place too, as we seem to have enough defensively for a home game against Brentford.

Brilliant summary and exactly how I saw it (from distance admittedly).

Lacroix is amazing and I wish all signings could settle so easily.

great post and thank you.

 

[est1905]

Check out Uche's loan agreement, then you will know.

I get what you're getting at but i doubt Glasner would tolerate being told not to play Uche because starting him 10 times means we have to buy him. If Glasner ends up starting him ten times during the season thats evidence enough that he's good enough.

I'm pretty sure the owners let the manager do the managing

 

[Uphill]

Summing up our present situation.

In the past we have relied on Zaha to keep us up and since his departure our subsequent success in winning the FA Cup has been largely due to Glasner and one player, Eze. His loss is beginning to show as we are becoming toothless in attack.

I cannot believe we lost to Everton or Lanarca - both down to poor finishing. I don't know the answer but if there is one it has to be Wharton providing more through balls but, then, I have my doubts about Mateta, Sarr and Nketiah being good enough to take advantage, especially when Munoz was non-functioning as against Arsenal.

Reliable goal scorers are thin on the ground and it appears we have few alternatives on the bench.
90th minute substitutions were baffling indicating desperation.

I am still not sure what Kamada's role in the side. He needs to give Wharton support and should be replaced by Hughes.

The next few games will show if Glasner has a plan B because we can't go on being solid in defence yet so wasteful up front.

 

[Hannes]

I cannot believe we lost to Everton or Lanarca - both down to poor finishing.

I think we could pick any players in the world to play for us against Everton and we would still lose to Everton. But seriously, Larnaca's victory is not such a big surprise or exception. These clubs, which have some experience in Europe, know exactly how to frustrate the big teams that are better in every department and wait for their chances. They build on the fact that they are underestimated (which the players of the superior teams often do, consciously or unconsciously) and play a ‘Palace’, as we did in the FA Cup final. Just look at which teams often appeared among the last teams when European competitions were only knockout competitions. They were often anything but the favourites. That's why UEFA switched to league phases as a final Rosenborg Trondheim : Sturm Graz hardly attract the masses worldwide and league phases usually guarantee that the big boys get the upper hand.

 

[sprites]

Late to post, but I wanted to add my observations, having been at yesterday's game. I thought we were very solid in the 1st half, and without being creative going forward, we were marginally the better team, with their goal coming out of the blue. We then struggled for the next 25 minutes, with Arsenal dominating, before coming back into it in the final quarter. Overall we could have played all night without scoring, but on the other hand we could quite easily have come away with a 0-0 draw against a team who in my view are very likely to win the league. So no embarrassment or disaster, but we were very limited going forward.

I thought our best player was Wharton, who was the only one to show any creative class, but others have given him little credit. Lacroix was excellent in defence. Personally I thought Kamada was largely anonymous, and like most others Pino had a poor game, constantly bullied off the ball, and Sarr was also disappointing with misplaced pass after misplaced pass. We looked much better when Hughes and Nketiah came on. 5 minutes for Uche to make a difference was, as others have said, nonsensical, but I thought he did as much as he could in that time. I would like to see the reserves play at Liverpool, and then against Brentford the usual back 6, with Hughes partnering Wharton. Might be inclined to start Nketiah in Pino's place too, as we seem to have enough defensively for a home game against Brentford.

Spot on.

 

[Living In Hope]

Summing up our present situation.

In the past we have relied on Zaha to keep us up and since his departure our subsequent success in winning the FA Cup has been largely due to Glasner and one player, Eze. His loss is beginning to show as we are becoming toothless in attack.

I cannot believe we lost to Everton or Lanarca - both down to poor finishing. I don't know the answer but if there is one it has to be Wharton providing more through balls but, then, I have my doubts about Mateta, Sarr and Nketiah being good enough to take advantage, especially when Munoz was non-functioning as against Arsenal.

Reliable goal scorers are thin on the ground and it appears we have few alternatives on the bench.
90th minute substitutions were baffling indicating desperation.

I am still not sure what Kamada's role in the side. He needs to give Wharton support and should be replaced by Hughes.

The next few games will show if Glasner has a plan B because we can't go on being solid in defence yet so wasteful up front.

The only thing I would say is that I had a long chat with my mate who's an Arsenal season ticket holder, and Nketiah is quite highly regarded there. I don't think we have seen the best of him yet, but he showed some great pace yesterday, really pulling away behind one their defenders.

 

[RubinsCube]

The only thing I would say is that I had a long chat with my mate who's an Arsenal season ticket holder, and Nketiah is quite highly regarded there. I don't think we have seen the best of him yet, but he showed some great pace yesterday, really pulling away behind one their defenders.

I agree. For the first time in a long time we can confidently say to our current (and any prospective incoming) strikers - "this team does make chances for you. You'll not be coming here to feed off scraps".

I think it's the perfect time to be giving Uche, Esse and Nketiah more minutes where we can.