A completely bizarre night in all honesty, as Arsenal found themselves with a completely dominant performance until the half-time whistle, but without a goal. Then, in the second half, as Crystal Palace grew into the game, the Gunners would find an unlikely goal as Maxence Lacroix endured an emotionally challenging evening.
Scoring the own goal and then missing the penalty in the shootout, which handed the Gunners victory. Penalties, of course, which come about because of yet another late goal being conceded.
That being the fifth in the final ten minutes of matches that the Gunners have conceded. It sparks a fair question of whether or not this is a problem and naturally begs the query as to why this continues to happen.
Arsenal held their nerve in the penalty shootout, scoring all eight spot kicks with many players who are regular starters after Mikel Arteta had made four changes during the match. Whether the late wobbles are a concern to Arteta didn’t appear obvious as he spoke after the match and instead appeared to think that had they finished the chances to widen the margin in these games it need not be an issue.
“Yeah, well, sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition and the way they've done it, but I think the margin should have been much bigger,” he said. “That should have been three or four, and then we're not worried about what happens in the last minutes.”
It sounds like a simple solution; just score more goals. It was not like the Gunners didn’t have the opportunity to as Noni Madueke missed a handful of moments while Gabriel Jesus was also denied by Walter Benitez, who was by far the best performer on the night.
The reality lately, however, is that Arsenal cannot extend their margin to avoid these nervous conclusions to matches. The last league game they opened a two-goal margin to their opponent before half-time was in the North London Derby on November 23.
With the win over Burnley, the only other example of having done so, unless you go back to the first home match of the season, the 5-0 win over Leeds, by far the biggest win and not one they’ve come close to matching since. December has been tough, but there is unlikely to be any let-up for the Gunners, especially not having earned a double-legged semi-final in the League Cup against Chelsea.
Arteta, however, believes that his team want to “explode” and to do so they need to continue to create as many opportunities as they can.
“Well, that's what we want,” Arteta said. “I think what we have to do is continue to generate the chances that we do, and conceding nothing. I don't think we conceded only one shot again.
“So, I do that, and trust the players. I mean, they showed great composure and quality in the penalty shoot-out. We had some very big, open chances today to score goals, and we didn't.
“So, trust them, keep training, and try to keep improving.”
A player who many feel is not being trusted at the moment is Ethan Nwaneri. Having played the full 90 in the previous two rounds of the League Cup, it was hoped he would again see game time against Palace.
Especially considering the South London club were playing their third game in seven days and showed signs of fatigue. Instead, Leandro Trossard, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice all came onto the field from the bench.
Granted, Arteta rotated all of the front three, and the three midfielders from the team that beat Everton. However, when in need of changing the likes of Eberechi Eze or Noni Madueke, Nwaneri was not trusted.
I have a theory on this and it transcends just this game, it extends back to Everton, Wolves, Aston Villa, Brentford, Chelsea and Sunderland. Between the latter two games was the North London Derby, currently the only league match where Nwaneri has featured, where got a tiny cameo at the end of a 4-1 win.
In all the other games, Arsenal failed to take a two-goal lead (besides Brentford in the 90th minute) in any of those games. Draws and a defeat at Villa Park included, these have been tight affairs, even the wins.
And in these tight affairs, it is apparent that Nwaneri does not seem to be trusted. It’s clear that the 18-year-old still has areas of his game to improve, and the defensive, pressing aspect of his playstyle is exactly that.
In an Arteta team, no matter your position you need to be all-in when it comes to application out of possession. Read back some of Arteta’s comments following the win over Burnley in the league, and the win over Brighton in the League Cup when discussing Nwaneri both when prompted and, in the case of the trip to Turf Moor, when not prompted.
“He came on the other day as well, and he's going to have those chances, and when he has, he needs to make the most out of it,” he said when asked about Nwaneri’s performance having scored against Brighton. “I think he took the goal really, really well.
“He had some actions, some of them, they weren't that effective. But what I liked is that he kept trying and making risks and he didn't change that behaviour and determination to make things happen and at the end, he got rewarded with a brilliant goal.”
It is rare to hear Arteta publicly talk about the drawbacks on show, especially for a younger player. But he offers up his critique of some of the actions, we don’t know what they specifically relate to but perhaps his comments after Burnley could tell us some more…
“I think, again, the spirit is an action at the end, after a corner from Declan that Ethan doesn't win the duel there and you see 10 players sprinting 80 metres,” Arteta said when asked about, at that time, conceding so little. “I mean, we play with that desire, with that focus, with that discipline. We'll win a lot of games.”
Ethan was dispossessed and the team chased back. Nwaneri is often spotted when playing on the right in the first half at the Emirates, on the side Arteta stands, being instructed to track back by the Spaniard on the touchline.
There is arguably some parallels to Eberechi Eze growing too. His seniority, attacking threat and verve give him more of a pass, but it’s no surprise that with Odegaard back, he has resumed starting in the number ten role.
Eze and Nwaneri are two players who Arteta has to find ways to maximise, and it might come at the expense of some defensive security, but to utilise them in the best way, he must emphasise their strengths, and compensate elsewhere for their weaknesses.
