With more than enough merit to have scored a goal before the break and beyond against Crystal Palace, but frustrated by Walter Benítez’s saves, Arsenal took the lead in the 84th minute, was tied by Marc Guehi in the 95th minute and qualified for the semi-finals of the League Cup at the limit, in the sixteenth penalty, saved by Kepa Arrizabalaga against Lacroix.
No one missed any of the fifteen previous maximum penalties. Neither Odegaard, nor Mateta, nor Declan Rice, nor Devenny, nor Saka, nor Hughes, nor Trossard, nor Sosa, nor Mikel Merino, nor Lerma, nor Calafiori, nor Adam Wharton, nor Timber, nor Uche, nor Saliba. None of them even gave the goalkeepers the option to think about the save. Until the final moment of Kepa, who claimed the leading role that belonged to Benítez for almost the entire match.
Arsenal’s huge squad, which will face Chelsea in the penultimate round, is missing a goal.
It is a deficit in its amount of undoubted resources. Not only does he have a starting eleven, but much more. From last Saturday’s match against Everton in Liverpool, vital to retain the top spot in the face of pressure from Manchester City, to this Tuesday’s clash such essential men as Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Martin Zubimendi, Viktor Gyokeres and David Raya went from starting to substituting.
But Mikel Merino, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke, Gabriel Jesús and Gabriel Martinelli appeared on the pitch, in addition to Kepa, as fine-tuned as their most regular teammates, within the clear idea, imposing when it works with precision, speed and mobility, with which Arteta has given his entire team, whoever plays, whatever the competition.
A competitive and offensive machine that recovers, moment by moment, the latest ups and downs. Already with Everton he showed a reunion (he deserved to win by more than 0-1, even with two shots on the posts), highlighted even more in the first half of this Tuesday, with a frenetic display from the first second that Benítez opposed throughout the first act and the final part of the second.
The Argentine goalkeeper was the hero of Palace’s resistance. Signed last summer, free from PSV Eindhoven, he is Dean Henderson’s substitute. They have only played in the League Cup and in the last two games of the Conference League. Just five matches with this Tuesday’s challenge, in which he demonstrated all his qualities.
In 79.2 percent possession for Arsenal, with up to 12 shots, four on target, the goalkeeper rebelled against logic and even statistics in the first half. From the Gunner team’s 1.60 expected goals at half-time, he reduced it to nothing, to 0-0, to the hesitant survival of Crystal Palace, surpassed by its great potential rival. Arsenal finished with an expected goals average of 3.24, but only scored one.
Madueke was denied three goals in the first half with his tremendous exercise of reflexes, while Riccardo Calafiori, this Tuesday central, with Lewis-Skelly as a winger, sent a comfortable shot through the clouds and Martinelli overflowed and overflowed, again and again, on the other wing, unstoppable for his markers, sharp in every dribble and frenetic in every throw.
The second half was different. With Crystal Palace tight in the recovery, in defense and in the counterattack, Kepa Arrizabalaga reappeared in the area with a right hand from Adam Wharton, it cost Arsenal much more, with hardly any chances, Martinelli being substituted, perhaps due to the physical mishap at the end of the first half. He was replaced in ’58.
Leandro Trossard entered first. Then Arteta went further, already in ’67. Odegaard and Saka, for Eze and Madueke. One more demonstration of resources from the Spanish coach, nervous on the sideline, with his arms crossed, in constant movement, because the game already had too many edges beyond his control and because the goal seemed far away from the break.
Arteta still put his hands on his head with the first big chance of the second half, already in the 69th, with a header from Gabriel Jesús. Just in that play, Chris Richards was injured at Crystal Palace, treated for minutes on the pitch on his bloody right ankle and finally taken off on a stretcher, amidst general applause.
With fifteen minutes left, the game was on the edge. Crystal Palace insisted on their options, with Kepa increasingly demanding, just as Arsenal flew on a counterattack, from one field to another, formidable in the transition, until the shot by Gabriel Jesús and the magnificent stop, in the air, again by Walter Benítez, who could do nothing afterwards.
The consequent corner, with the skill with which Arsenal handles itself, ended the resistance. From the good execution from the corner by Saka and the double shot by Timber without success, to a rebound that was definitive for the fate of the game, with the rebound in Lacroix to sneak between three of his teammates, one of them Benítez. It’s football.
Palace did not give up, they tied in the 95th minute, in the fifth of the nine minutes given by the injury referee, in a lateral free kick by Wharton, headed by Jonathan Lerma and finished off by Guehi, who slipped through the defence, got ahead of Kepa and caused the penalties.
A lot of merit and impossible without Benítez, who made another stop in the 102nd minute against Rice, in the small area. It was enough for the penalties, but not to go further, because his counterpart on the other team, Kepa Arrizabalaga, took the definitive lead with his stop on the sixteenth shot.
Technical sheet:
1 (8) – Arsenal: Kepa Arrizabalaga; Timber, salibs, california, lewis-skelly; Inorganard, Merino, Eze (Odegarard, M. 67); Madueke (Saka, M. 67), Gabriel Jesús (RICE, M. 85) y Martinelli (Trossard, M. 59).
1 (7) – Palace Crystal: Blessing; Richards (Hughes, m. 75), Canvat (Devenny, m. 46), Lacroix, Guehi, Mitchell (Sosa, m. 100); Wharton, Lerma; Yeremy Pino (Uche, m. 84), Nketiah (Clyne, m. 46), Matheta.
Goals: 1-0, m. 80: Lacroix, own goal. 1-1, m. 95: Gehi.
Penalties (8-7): 1-0: Odegaard, goal. 1-1: Mateta, goal. 2-1: Rice, goal. 2-2: Devenny, goal. 3-2: Saka, goal. 3-3: Hughes, goal. 4-3: Trossard, goal. 4-4: Sosa, goal. 5-4: Mikel Merino, goal. 5-5: Lerma, goal. 6-5: Calafiori, goal. 6-6: Wharton, goal. 7-6: Timber, goal. 7-7: Uche, goal. 8-7: Saliba, goal. 8-7: Lacroix, Kepa.
Match compact:
