Mikel Arteta has confessed that not every element of his gameplan against Crystal Palace came together as he intended.
Ultimately, Arsenal were able to record a comfortable 5-1 victory at Selhurst Park. A Gabriel Jesus brace, before goals from Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli, and Declan Rice, secured the win for the North London outfit.
This victory meant that Arsenal confirmed their status as the 2024 kings of London, as they will now complete the calendar year without having lost a capital city derby.
However, things were not entirely plain sailing for the Gunners on Saturday. There were flaws in Arsenal’s defensive performance, as both William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes turned in uncharacteristically poor displays.
Mikel Arteta explains Arsenal weakness vs Crystal Palace
Arsenal’s defensive issues against the Eagles started at the top of the pitch, though.
After the final whistle, Mikel Arteta was asked if including both Jesus and Havertz in the same starting XI made his side less defensively stable than usual.
As quoted by the official Arsenal website, the Spanish coach agreed that this had been a factor, but that the Crystal Palace press also forced his players into errors.
He said: “Yeah, because they were more aggressive than in the first game which we expected, but we didn’t understand whether or not which sequences we had to put and the spaces that we needed to create.
“So, we ended up playing too much with David very close his own goal and against them it’s a really bad game to play, and we adjusted a few things. When Rice came on, he changed the game, he gave us more dominance, still the same threat but we were much better.”
How Arsenal can find midfield balance without Declan Rice
Declan Rice was introduced in the second half at Selhurst Park, and helped Arsenal to take control of the game.
Prior to that, Thomas Partey had been tasked with screening the back four alone at the base of the Arsenal midfield. However, the 31-year-old was outnumbered by opposition players in this part of the pitch, and lacked the pace or manoeuvrability to cope with this.
The key lesson that Arteta must take from this fixture is that Rice is the lynchpin around which he must build his midfield, regardless of whether the likes of Partey, Havertz, or Mikel Merino are involved in the team too.
If Rice is unavailable for whatever reason, then the manager must in future sacrifice an attacking outlet – either Havertz or Jesus, for instance – so that he can bring a more defensively-minded midfield operator into the fold to account for the absence of the former West Ham United star.
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