Arsenal 3 - Crystal Palace 2 match report: hat trick hero
Yesterday at 04:58 PM
Gabriel Jesus fires the Gunners into the semifinal.
Arsenal overturned a 1-0 halftime deficit against Crystal Palace, winning 3-2 to advance to the semifinals of the Carabao Cup. Gabriel Jesus' second half hat trick was enough to put Arsenal through despite a late goal from former Arsenal man Eddie Nketiah. The Gunners will play the two-legged semifinal the weeks of January 6th and February 3rd, with the opponent to be drawn tomorrow (Thursday, December 18th) after Tottenham play Manchester United.
The first half was familiar and not in a good way. Arsenal conceded minutes into the match — Jakub Kiwior misjudged a ball, allowing Jean-Philippe Mateta to hold him off for strength and find the back of the net. For the rest of the half, the Gunners dominated the ball (70%+ possession) but didn't really threaten Dean Henderson's goal. Leandro Trossard, whose finishing has run a bit cold, put Arsenal's best chance of the half over the bar. Raheem Sterling forced a decent save from a free kick.
Mikel Arteta swapped William Saliba for Thomas Partey, which pushed Jurrien Timber to right back, and Martin Ødegaard for Ethan Nwaneri to start the second half. The changes made an immediate difference. Raheem Sterling had an early double chance - the first saved and the second, inexplicably, put off the bar.
Then Gabriel Jesus found his scoring boots. His first came from an excellent long, reverse ball through the lines from Ødegaard. The Brazilian did really well to keep his balance riding out the challenge and even better to dink it over Dean Henderson's shoulder. About 20 minutes later, he put the Gunners ahead, firing low into the far corner after Bukayo Saka put him in. It looked like he was a fraction offside on the goal, but there is no VAR at this stage of the Carabao Cup, so the goal stood. He completed the hat trick in the 81st minute, converting a breakaway after Ødegaard put him in from midfield, assisted by a Tottenham-esque, ridiculously high defensive line.
As it turns out, Arsenal needed the third goal because, as expected, Eddie Nketiah scored against his former club. You just knew he would, right? To be fair, it was an excellent header from Eddie. Jakub Kiwior couldn't quite jump high enough to deflect the cross and William Saliba was late sliding over to contest the header.
Kieran Tierney put in a decent shift, particularly given his long injury layoff from the hamstring tear suffered at the Euros. I didn't think we'd ever see him in an Arsenal shirt again, so that was nice. Mikel Merino seems to be finding a bit of rhythm at the club. I was pleasantly surprised at how he kept popping up in pockets of space to help move the ball up the pitch, create space for teammates, and combine around the box. Leandro Trossard had a solid second half — he's so much better when he can drift inside as opposed to needing to play more of the Gabriel Martinelli, boots on the touchline winger role. Thomas Partey isn't a right back.
The story of the night, of course, is Gabriel Jesus. All three of his finishes were high-quality, not the type you'd expect from a player not getting regular minutes and struggling to find the back of the net. I'd been getting a bit worried that he wouldn't again get close to the pre-World Cup form for Arsenal. I'm not going to declare him back-back after one fantastic performance but if he can continue playing like this (and finding the back of the net), it would be a massive lift for Arsenal. Dare I say, like a new signing?
Hopefully that second half scoring outburst is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Gunners. My guess is that the vibes inside the club don't swing nearly as dramatically as the mood outside of it does, but winning feels good and often begets more winning. Arsenal have been struggling to score goals and boom, they pot three in a half on the way to a comeback win. We (the media and fans) probably try too hard to create narratives, but if Arsenal reel off a bunch of wins to climb back into close contention in the Premier League and keep firing in the cups, it'd be hard not to say that this win over Palace wasn't an inflection point in the season.
It's Crystal Palace again at the weekend at Selhurst Park.
