Roy Hodgson's Crystal Palace hosted Mikel Arteta's Arsenal FC in the final game of the Premier League weekend. Both teams looked to extend their winning starts to their Premier League campaigns and Arsenal especially, looking to impress after a shaky ending to their win against Nottingham Forrest last weekend.
Arsenal came out on top in this London derby with a 1-0 victory at Selhurst Park, through a Martin Odegaard penalty in what was a game of two halves.
Arsenal began the game as expected, pinning back Palace as they dominated the ball and created some half chances. Declan Rice and Eddie Nketiah looked lively as they linked up for the best chance of the match which was chipped just over Sam Johnstone and the bar.
The second half saw Takehiro Tomiyasu pick up two very avoidable yellow cards, one of which was for time wasting. This saw the Gunners down to 10 men and Crystal Palace gained momentum from then on.
Crystal Palace came forward with wave after wave of attack, led mostly by Eberechi Eze, but could not breakthrough Arsenal's formidable backline. Late defensive substitutions from the Gunners in Jakub Kiwior, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Jorginho helped Arsenal see out the game and earn themselves the 3 points.
Here are four things we learnt as Arsenal continued their 100% win record this season.
No Nonsense Refereeing
Over the two weeks of Premier League so far, there has been a total of 89 yellow cards and 5 red cards. This is heavily due to a crackdown on time wasting and dissent enforced by referees across the English leagues.
Last night's game was no different as we saw David Coote brandish Takehiro Tomiyasu an initial yellow card for time wasting from an Arsenal throw in. Tomiyasu was holding onto the ball for 8 seconds before he got booked, but prior to that Kai Havertz and Thomas Partey delayed play before Tomiyasu even picked up the ball.
Although it may seem harsh that Tomiyasu was the one to pick up the yellow card, it was due to a culmination of offences by his teammates.
What truly makes this a talking point is that Tomiyasu later got a second yellow card for a soft foul on Jordan Ayew meaning the Japanese international got sent off, leaving Arsenal down to 10 men for 23 minutes plus added time.
Whether justified or not, Tomiyasu's red card has definitely sent a message to Premier League sides on how seriously referees are taking the rules. It is likely we will see a lot more red cards like this throughout the season.
Declan Rice is Key
Arsenal's £105 million man was absolutely everywhere last night, stamping his authority in the Arsenal midfield. Rice was deployed as a lone 6 as opposed to the number 8 role he was playing against Nottingham Forrest.
Tasked with facing the exciting midfield of Cheick Doucouré, Jefferson Lerma, and Eberechi Eze, Rice handled himself fantastically as he constantly demanded the ball from his defence and repeatedly drove his side forward.
Despite playing deep yesterday, Rice showed that he is more than just a tough tackling midfielder. In the first half, Rice played a delicious through ball into Nketiah who was unable to finish. This set the president for what was to follow. Rice covered 11.6km and was 1st for xA (expected assists), passes into the final third and passes forward under pressure against Crystal Palace. This performance hopefully is a sign of things to come from Rice in an Arsenal shirt.
Arsenal's Added Resilience
In recent years, a game like this is one where you would not be scoffed at if you predicted an Arsenal loss beforehand. Under the lights, on a Monday night, with the whole world watching, Arsenal could have easily crumbled and ended the match with a draw or even a loss, especially after having a player sent off.
Mikel Arteta's men managed the game fantastically from the red card onwards, opting to sit back and defend rather than trying to score more goals. This decision proved the correct one as Crystal Palace did not really create any clear-cut chances as they only accumulated an xG (expected goals) of 0.74 from 14 total shots (The xG Philosophy).
Last season we saw Arsenal carve out some wonderful results from difficult positions, such as Bournemouth (H) and Aston Villa (A), however, we did also see Arsenal fail to perform under the pressure of a true title race with losses to Nottingham Forrest (A) and Brighton (H) showing this team does have its weaknesses.
Now that Arsenal have been tipped as title challengers again this season, a solid defensive display with 10 men can only do wonders for the dressing room. Could this performance be a sign of champions? It is a little too early to say, but Arsenal did not look troubled defending their lead.
Crystal Palace Have Potential
To give credit to Roy Hodgson and Crystal Palace, it took Arsenal 54 minutes to break the deadlock from a penalty. The pairing of Joachim Andersen and Marc Guéhi marshalled the Arsenal attack relatively well only allowing the Gunners 3 shots on target.
Eberechi Eze's performance was exciting, as he and Jordan Ayew were at the forefront of most Crystal Palace attacks. Eze's dazzling feet even gave Palace a genuine penalty shout as he beat Thomas Partey and Declan Rice in the Arsenal box, before falling to the ground.
It should be known that Palace were missing their key players from last season in Wilfred Zaha, who has transferred to Galatasaray S.K. in Turkey, and in Micheal Olise, who tore his hamstring representing France at the U-21 Euros this summer.
New signing Matheus França did not make the Palace squad either. For a depleted Crystal Palace team, Hodgson should not be too disheartened with how his side performed on the night. When Olise and Franca are back in action, Palace may prove to be a team to watch out for this season.
