Arsenal bring Crystal Palace's unbeaten run to an end

Crystal Palace afforded Arsenal a 45 minute head start

Crystal Palace were really slow out of the blocks against Arsenal. We weren’t really in the game for the first half of the game, which was a real shame because we showed just how many problems we could cause Arsenal in the second half.

After half time we really gave it a go. We had more possession in the first 10-15 minutes of the second half, in which time we scored one and had Arsenal on the ropes. We were pressing much more aggressively, sensing the fragility and attempting to turn the screw and go ahead. If we hadn’t been a goal behind at that point and had gone one ahead, we could all have been celebrating another win against the odds this morning.

Ultimately we were undone by some astonishing play from two quality players. Jack Wilshere’s delivery and Alexis Sanchez’s control and finish were both straight out of the top draw and any criticism you can level at the Palace players for that situation is doing the quality of that move a disservice. There was no reason to press Wilshere and though perhaps we could have tracked Sanchez better it was a wonderfully timed run and 9 out of 10 players would have miscontrolled or been caught.

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Hodgson tactics remain puzzling

I’ve been complimentary of Roy Hodgson overall, you can hardly argue with his results in the last few games, but his rigid formation decision has us in a ‘square pegs in round holes’ conundrum.

Ruben Loftus Cheek is a classy player, but he’s also a luxury. Compare his work rate to that of Cabaye or McArthur and he is thoroughly shown up. This in itself is not necessarily a problem, if he were played in behind the striker it wouldn’t matter as much, but Hodgson’s insistence on a 4-4-2 with Loftus-Cheek playing wide leaves his full back with a problem.

Andros Townsend has a fantastic work-rate, he tracks runners and puts in more than his fair share of defending. The same isn’t true of Loftus-Cheek on the other side and on Thursday night it fell on Jeffrey Schlupp to attempt to do the defensive work of two players. We can’t afford to carry players like that.

It also means that Wilfried Zaha is played out of position. Christian Benteke is often criticised, but what kind of service did he have against Arsenal? Precious little – we’re not creating the kind of chances he can thrive off. We looked much more threatening on the introduction of Sako, who partnered Benteke up front with Zaha returning to his more traditional position out wide.

I understand it is a balancing act, after all this formation has delivered an unbeaten run of eight games with Crystal Palace now outside the relegation zone. However, expect Benteke & Schlupp to continue to struggle and Zaha to be expected to pull things out of nothing to grab us a win if we can’t find a solution.

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Things don’t get much easier for Crystal Palace

Fixtures come thick and fast over the festive period and the ethereal Manchester City visit Selhurst Park in just two days. Arsenal can be delicate at times, they demonstrated that in parts of the second half on Thursday evening, but Manchester City have looked anything but that this season.

We nearly got away with giving Arsenal a head start, the same will not be true of Manchester City. If we aren’t quite at the races from the get-go we will be rightly embarrassed, no team has been better at punishing teams this season. We have already had that demonstrated to us once this season after we conceded five against them earlier in the season.

The result is far from predetermined, but if we want to get anything from the game we have to be defensively astute, organised and aggressive on the counter attack, all combined with City having a bit of an off day.