Nothing will help but win Arsenal Now on their quest to achieve Premier League address.
Chelsea and Liverpool are rising significantly, but even with Manchester City now out of the race, the Gunners must be perfect.
They have been far from it in recent weeks, but have dropped four points against Fulham and Everton over the past two weekends.
Well, on the weekend when the boss Mikel Arteta They celebrated five years in charge of Arsenal, giving him the perfect gift with a 5-1 thrashing at Selhurst Park, beating Crystal Palace for the second time this week.
Just days ago, the North London side defeated their London rivals in the Carabao Cup, but that win was arguably even more meaningful given their performances in the league over the past few weeks.
As if he was in the Emirates on Wednesday evening, Gabriel Jesus He was the champion again.
Gabriel Jesus' performance against Crystal Palace
What a week it has been for the Brazilian striker. Against Palace in midweek, the former Manchester City star scored a top-flight hat-trick and scored his first home goals in just over a year.
He was still waiting His first Premier League goal since JanuaryBut it came on Saturday when Jesus gave another scintillating performance.
Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and Declan Rice also scored but it was Jesus who stole the show and scored the first goal with a brilliant finish from around six yards.
His second goal was an even better strike. After a corner kick, Thomas Partey got the ball into the path of the Brazil international who wrapped his foot around the ball and slotted it past Dean Henderson.
This has been a historic week for Jesus, and with Bukayo Saka limping off with a hamstring injury in the first half, the importance of his contributions in the final third will only increase.
He very likely had more than two goals too, as the 27-year-old hit the post that led to Havertz's goal and then curled a simple one-on-one chance straight past Henderson at the same stage of play in which Martinelli found the target. net of.
It was another great performance but the same can't be said for one man at the back.
Performance in numbers
Do you want data and statistics? Football FanCast's Performance By Numbers series brings you the latest match analysis from across Europe.
Saliba's performance in numbers against Crystal Palace
Over the past few years, William Saliba He is known as one of the best central defenders in the league. He is the natural heir to Van Dijk as the Premier League's premier centre-back.
Just a few days ago, he was celebrated as one of the best players in the world too, with FIFA's The Best award naming him to the Team of the Year.
Kylian Mbappé even suggested the defender He should have been France's player of the year 2024given his impeccable performances for club and country.
So, his performance at Selhurst Park on Saturday night was somewhat puzzling with that in mind, with Jamie Carragher commenting on Sky Sports summing things up well by suggesting he had a “horrible first 20 minutes”.
Because of Saliba, Arsenal could have conceded two goals during those moments. In order to equalize for Ismaila Sarr, the Frenchman fell back and failed to get close enough to the Palace striker which allowed him to fire past David Raya under very little pressure from the Gunners defence.
A few minutes later, the defender almost cost Arteta's men the second goal. Saliba was caught by Sarr who then slipped into Jean-Philippe Mateta.
He scored against North London just a few days ago in the Carabao Cup, and fumbled his lines here, allowing Rea to run out and stifle the striker's brilliant scoring chance.
One mistake from Saliba is rare, but getting two mistakes in one match is even rarer. Truth be told, this was probably his worst part with the club so far, though GOAL gave him a match rating of 4/10 After the full time whistle.
The numbers didn't paint the prettiest picture of his evening either.
|
Saliba vs Crystal Palace |
|
|---|---|
|
Minutes played |
98 |
|
Touches |
116 |
|
Accurate passes |
100/105 (95%) |
|
Approvals |
4 |
|
Objections |
1 |
|
He treats |
0 |
|
Long balls |
1/2 |
|
He won ground duels |
1/4 |
|
Aerial duels won |
1/1 |
|
Lost possession |
8x |
|
Evading success |
1/3 |
|
Statistics via SofaScore. |
|
In fact, Saliba did not make any successful tackles throughout the match He won only one of his four ground duelsa statistic that sums up how strange the Frenchman was this weekend.
With the fixtures increasing in intensity and speed over the festive period, Arsenal will need to rediscover their knack for keeping clean sheets again. In-form Saliba – not the one they got on Saturday – will be key to achieving that.
