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Santi Cazorla
Arsenal's Santi Cazorla evades the challenge of Crystal Palace's Jason Puncheon. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images
Arsenal's Santi Cazorla evades the challenge of Crystal Palace's Jason Puncheon. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

Arsenal’s away form in Crystal Palace win shows new resilience

This article is more than 9 years old
Arsène Wenger says victory was hugely important
Crystal Palace had more possession than Arsenal
Match report: Crystal Palace 1-2 Arsenal

As Homer Simpson wisely put it, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. For those in the Crystal Palace corner, the fact that they had more shots, more possession and more corners than Arsenal was definitive proof they were easily the better side. Yet Arsenal won 2-1 and their supporters took the numbers as an encouraging sign of Arsène Wenger’s sensible edge towards a more pragmatic approach away from home.

Either way, a pattern is emerging. Arsenal have been accused in the past of prioritising style over substance, but that could be changing. They have had more of the ball than their opponents only once in their past six away matches and that was when they lost 2-0 at Southampton on New Year’s Day. They drew 2-2 at Liverpool with 36% of the possession and they only needed 42% to beat West Ham 2-1, 35% to beat Manchester City 2-0 and 47% to see off Palace. Could it be that Arsenal are learning how to win ugly?

They were not at their most fluent against Palace. Arsenal created three good chances and scored twice. Santi Cazorla converted an early penalty and Olivier Giroud doubled the lead, somewhat fortuitously given that Danny Welbeck looked offside in the buildup, and Arsenal were content to sit back and soak up the pressure before Glenn Murray almost inspired an astonishing Palace comeback in stoppage time. Murray scored after coming off the bench with 11 minutes to go and seconds later he headed against the post with the game’s penultimate attack.

For Wenger, the result was all that mattered. “It was a very demanding game on a very difficult pitch,” he said. “It was hard underneath and it took us a while to adapt to it. We did some good things technically on this pitch but overall I was impressed by Crystal Palace’s fighting spirit, their desire to play, to fight, to close us down – they did very well.

“What is important for me is to win today because we fought like mad to come back in a strong position in the league, and not to win today would have been disastrous.”

Yet it is not clear to what extent Arsenal’s reactive football on their travels is being influenced by the failure of their creative talents to assert themselves. Palace pressed Arsenal furiously and Cazorla, Mesut Özil, Alexis Sánchez and Welbeck were all guilty of some slack play, while Giroud struggled to hold the ball up. Francis Coquelin continues to impress in the holding role and Arsenal mostly defended well, restricting Palace to three shots on target, yet perhaps their passing rhythm has been disrupted by the absence of the injured Mikel Arteta. Jack Wilshere, who was on the bench on Saturday, has also been missing because of injury.

Per Mertesacker says that the defeat at Southampton convinced the players to place more emphasis on defending, yet surely Wenger wants them to treat the ball with more care. After all, they had 44% of the possession when Tottenham Hotspur beat them 2-1 at White Hart Lane two weeks ago. They were overwhelmed that day and their passing will need to be better when they host Monaco for the first leg of their last 16 Champions League tie on Wednesday.

At least the draw has been kind to Arsenal, who have been knocked out at this stage by Bayern Munich in the past two seasons. They lost to Milan in 2012 and Barcelona in 2011. “The last 16 in recent years has been super tough,” Wenger said. “This is a 50-50 game. We know that Monaco are very tight defensively – they didn’t concede in the group stage against good teams. Of course it will be tricky but a possible tie. It’s really a 50-50 because Monaco are in a similar position to us. They came back into a good position in the league and their confidence level will be high.”

Man of the match Per Mertesacker (Arsenal)

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