Arsenal Top-Four Hopes Dented By Bogey Crystal Palace

Arsenal hopes of a top-four finish suffered a dent when they were handed a rare defeat at the Emirates Stadium to none other than the bogey Crystal Palace who had caused Liverpool some trouble in their encounter and even thumped Manchester City in early parts of the season.

Unai Emery had made some changes to his team and they clearly backfired. It was the hallmark of calamitous defending by any Premier League side that gave rise to the goals scored by Crystal Palace.

Goals by Ozil and Aubameyang of pure Champions League quality were scored on the other end only for errors by Mustafi and Jenkinson to make the Gunners look like some bit of joke.

They had put their defensive woes behind, conceding only one goal in their last seven outings only for that problem to wiggle its way back into their play.

Skhodan Mustafi ushered Zaha to score the second for the Eagles before Arsenal allowed Benteke and James Mc Arthur to score on either side of the Ivorian’s goal.

There was energy, resilience and determination in the midfield but it was not enough to compensate for the creativity and intervention that the North London club clearly lacked.

SEE ALSO: Liverpool Secure Win Over Cardiff City Over A Hard Fought Encounter

Talk of how poor the Gunners were, they were indeed lucky not to have trailed beyond one goal at the break. They had Leno to thank for a double-stop from Cheikhou Kouyate after a sharp counter-attack down the right.

It was a memorable and deserved win for Roy Hodgson and Crystal Palace who have now moved up to 12th place on the log.

It’s a huge blow to Arsenal’s hopes of a top four finish and Palace can now heave a sigh of relief after securing the magic 40 points.

They maintained composure at the back and were very threatening in attack with Zaha continuously showing that he had the qualities of playing for the very best of clubs.
Arsenal 2-3 Crystal Palace it ended.

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