• Vieira laments: we didn’t score to lift crowd
By Oviri Kelvin, Sports Editor
Arsenal fought hard to defend their one-goal lead at Selhurst Park against a vicious Crystal Palace in the Premier League opening game to later rattle it with a late strike that was deflected to earn them a 2-0 victory.
This is against the outcome of the opening Premier League game against Brentford Last season, where Arsenal suffered a 2-nil defeat at Falmer Stadium from a very aggressive side.
However, with lessons well learnt from the Bees and the injections of fresh legs into the Gunners’ squad, Mikel Arteta ensured he rejigged the mentality of his players ahead of any eventuality against Patrick Vieira’s squad.
Consequently, like a mathematical equation well formulated, a 20-minute goal from Gabriel Martinelli’s header and a late own goal conceded by Marc Guehi while deflecting Bukayo Saka’s cross was enough for the resilient Arsenal to record 3 points.
In Arteta’s post-match interview, he attributed the victory to his team’s resilience which he underlined that without it, it could have been impossible.
He said, “You don’t win here without it [resilience] and we experienced that last season.
“We started in a really different way to what we did last year.
“Building that mentality and finding a way to go through those moments and clean sheets in this league is going to be vital for our success and we have managed to do that.
“Hopefully that will breed some confidence in the team,” the Arsenal manager added.
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira has lamented his players were unable to convert two vital chances which got them punished likewise.
Vieria acknowledged that the Gunners’ prowess on the pitch gave Palace a really tough time, preventing them from creating many chances and deciding the pace of the game.
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“We created two really good chances to score and we didn’t take them,” he said post-match.
“In this game, you get punished really hard. Of course I’m disappointed because we could have scored, even if we didn’t create much.
“Football is about trying to score goals and we played against a good side. It’s really difficult to control the game against teams that have really good players.
“We had the ball, we had situations but we didn’t create very much. In the key moments, we didn’t score to lift the crowd and build momentum. That is something we have to work on,” Vieria admitted.
In the next Premier League fixture, Arsenal host Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, August 13, while Crystal Palace travel to Anfield to face Liverpool on Monday, August 15.
Arsenal centre-back William Saliba was named man of the match.
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