Key Incidents:
Goal (Arsenal) (63) – Some fine play by Freddie on the right saw him find his way into the area, where his low ball picked out Thierry who stuck out a foot to put Arsenal into the lead.
Goal (Crystal Palace) (65) – No sooner had we gone ahead then Palace pegged us back. Andy Johnson went through on goal, and his driven square ball eluded our backline, but found Riihilahti who had the simplest of tasks.
Player Ratings
Jens Lehmann - 6 Played well, and could do little about the goal. He did, however, have one of his “wobbles” went he sent a routine clearance flying into an on rushing Johnson.
Ashley Cole - 7 Kept Palace at bay, and remained true to his task all night.
Kolo Toure - 8 MOTM. Once again had to lead the defence, but proved that he is well up for the task. Made many important tackles and covered others when they had been involved in the attacks. Still had the energy to drive us forward late on.
Pascal Cygan - 6 Seemed to play at a slower tempo, and most of his passing was telegraphed. However, I must say that his defending has improved slightly over the past three games.
Lauren - 6 Was caught out by the dangerous Palace right side on a few occasions. However, he linked well with Freddie, and helped us stride forward.
Robert Pires- 6 Played some neat balls, but as we are in our “crisis spell”, most of the flicks and tricks weren't coming off. This has been the difference of late for the whole team.
Patrick Vieira - 6 Played some “lazy” balls, especially late on. Was a disappointing performance, from our normally inspirational skipper.
Cesc Fabregas - 7 Didn't put a foot wrong. Every ball seemed to be well placed, and his tackling was excellent. The downside here was that he had to come off as he was getting tired. We need to be sensible with him to avoid a burnout, but if anyone knows how to do this its Arsene.
Freddie Ljungberg - 6 Got the byline on numerous occasions and setup our goal with a sweeping move.
Thierry Henry - 6 Made good runs, and the goal clearly meant a lot to him. Its nice to see that kind of celebration. However as I said with Bobby, some of the flicks just aren't working at the moment.
Jose Reyes - 6 Got at the Palace defence and had a few shooting chances early on.
Subs:
Robin Van Persie - 7 Replaced Ljungberg, and came close to winning the game with a great shot which was well saved. Showing good form, and it would be nice to see him in the Beer Cup on Tuesday
Dennis Bergkamp – 6 Did little to influence the game after coming on. Played a few crosses in, but the keeper had no trouble cutting them out.
Mathieu Flamini - 6 Replaced the tiring Fabregas, and took on his role with great ease. Seemed to fit right in.