Arsenal 4-1 Crystal Palace: Saka’s brilliant Brace helps Gunners register Comfortable Win
Arsenal are flying high this season, courtesy to the likes of Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard, Ben White. Last night, another jewel was added to their crown as they defeated Crystal Palace comfortably with a huge margin of 4 goals, thanks to some individual brilliance from the 21-year old Bukayo Saka once again, scoring a double and sending his team eight points clear at the top, ahead of Manchester City.
Arteta- the tactical mastermind
Mikl Arteta, the boss of Arsenal and a former Arsenal legend had been showing his tactical masterclass this season. With perfect line-ups, perfect substitutions and setting a playing eleven mixed with experience and youth, he has been on top with his on-field tactics.
He made some brilliant changes to the starting eleven from the mid-week Europa League fixture against Sporting Lisbon, where they were ousted by the Portuguese team via tie breaker. Reiss Nelson was replaced by Saka on the left and Trossard replaced Gabriel Jesus on the front.
Belgian Trossard has been on a lightning form this season after joining the Gunners, assisting all players and scoring some. He was flanked by Martinelli on the left. In the midfield, Thomas Partey came in for Jorginho, and was well supported in the middle by Odegaard and Xhaka.
Well ahead from the first half
The Gunners, who were looking for some opportunities to score from the first minute itself, had finally got their breakthrough on just before the half hour mark, on 28th minute, where the sensational Saka assisted his strike partner Gabriel Martinelli to achieve a comfortable lead.
It all began from the wing play on the right when Saka put a ball from the long range and Martinelli blasted it on the right corner, leaving little to save for the Palace goalie Whitworth.
Then, it was time for the assist maker to get his name on the scoresheet, as defender Ben White assisted him, with Saka helping to double the advantage after a neat finish into the far corner, with Whitworth having no clue of the ball. With that Saka scored his 12th goal of the season, making him the second player after Alexis Sanchez to have a double-figure goals and assists tally to his name.
But Arsenal seemed to continue their rampage mode as 10 minutes into the second half, they registered their third goal of the night, with Xhaka on the scoresheet, beautifully assisted by Trossard.
The Belgian international has been a clutch player after joining the team in the winter transfer market, and has been on the headlines for his hattrick of assists in a game last week.
A consolation goal for the “Eagles”
On the 63rd minute, Schlupp managed to find the back of the net from a curling corner , only to be a consolation goal to their name as the match had already slipped out of their hands .
Scottish Tierney was put on, substituting left back Zinchenko. He assisted the final goal of the day to Saka, thus increasing Saka’s tally to 13 goals , with more than 10 games to come.
Although his playing minutes has reduced substantially this season, but he did not let that affect his natural game, as he has been a beautiful player to watch out for this season.
Dominant from the first
Arsenal had the entire game in their control, as they had possession of 62 percent, barely mis-passing and allowing opponents to get hold of the ball. They had blasted 15 shots on target, in comparison to Palace’s 9 shots .
With this win, Arsenal are confidently on a drivers seat, sitting on the top of the table, eight points clear of second placed Manchester City, who were busy with their FA Cup fixtures, thus well on verge of winning the title this season after almost 20 years.
