Arsenal show reassuring defensive mettle on a night to be endured rather than enjoyed

To onlookers, a perfunctory piece of defending. To the Arsenal defenders seeking refuge from endless Crystal Palace pressure, cause for an impromptu procession behind the Holmesdale Road goal.

In the 94th minute, Gabriel successfully got his body in front of Jordan Ayew, jockeying it out calmly for a goal kick. Just as confetti drifts, his team-mates made their way to him behind the goal.

William Saliba came for a double high-five, Aaron Ramsdale got a chest bump, Jakub Kiwior got two fists clenched in his face, while Jorginho won a candid embrace. Typically Italian.

The last 30 minutes of Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace was anything but stylish, however.

They were hemmed in at Selhurst Park, depleted by the second yellow card shown to Takehiro Tomiyasu in the 67th minute. With each cross thwarted came a rare moment of respite, an opportunity to milk these small wins.

The final one — the last of 19 Palace entries into the box in that final half an hour — saw Ramsdale fly from his line to claim the floated cross. Surrounded by team-mates, he lay on his front while each of his defenders leaned over to slap him on the back.

A fitting way to sign off a game of football that was designed to be endured rather than enjoyed. Arsenal survived and their celebrations in the away corner told of how thorough a test this was — not to mention a 13th consecutive London derby without defeat.

It was another away win built on a clean sheet, too. They had the best away record in the top flight last season, claiming 39 points from a possible 57, while they had the most clean sheets of any team, with 10.

This 1-0 win clocked up the club’s 200th Premier League clean sheet on the road, but it also meant they’ve now kept a clean sheet in 28 of their 68 away games under Arteta — giving him a rate of 41 per cent.

Given the build-up had been dominated by talk of whether Arsenal require another defensive player in light of Jurrien Timber’s injury, to come through such a stern test of their mettle should reassure Arteta.

Before the match, captain Martin Odegaard held up an extra shirt for the team photo, which read ‘Timber 12’ on the back, a message of support for their fallen team-mate who suffered an ACL injury in the opening league game of the season.

All sorts of mental gymnastics were deployed in an attempt to pre-empt what Arteta would do to fill the hole at left-back. When a red card was shown to his direct replacement Tomiyasu, who had until then been steady but limited on the ball, yet another rejig was required.

Despite dwindling options, Arteta somehow still managed to surprise everyone. He gradually introduced defender after defender until every one of them was on the pitch at the same time, garrisoned on the edge of the penalty area.

Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior and Gabriel all came on to join Saliba and Thomas Partey as a flat back five, with Declan Rice and Jorginho stationed in front as human barriers.

Tomiyasu’s second yellow may seem harsh as it was a momentary tug of Ayew’s jersey, but he gave the referee a decision when he was already booked. If Arsenal hadn’t started dragging out every dead-ball situation, he wouldn’t have been walking a tightrope to start with.

After going ahead from the spot through Odegaard shortly after half-time — a decision Arteta said was made on the pitch — the energy in the game died.

A plateau is sometimes helpful to sap the energy from a boisterous home crowd at Selhurst, but Partey, Saliba and Ramsdale started to catch the attention of the Palace fans and referee David Coote by prolonging goal kicks. Throw-ins then started switching hands and soon the referee acted in line with the new rules aimed at clamping down on time-wasting.

Tomiyasu was the unlucky one but it was symptomatic of Arsenal slowing the game down. It felt unwise not to keep playing at their own rhythm, especially when their best success in the game had come from quick thinking.

Gabriel Martinelli’s opportunistic free kick put Eddie Nketiah through for the decisive penalty, while in the first half it was Bukayo Saka springing back up from being fouled which created a counter-attack and led to Martinelli having a volley at the back post.

Their cerebral possession game had struggled to penetrate Palace’s disciplined setup. It was only when Martinelli started drifting inside and players started playing more intuitively that the gaps appeared.

Rice was crucial to that upsurge in intensity towards half-time. After struggling to get on the ball early on, in the 22nd minute he made two quick darts to create the angle to receive and played first time to Partey behind the Palace midfield.

Moments later he rejected a simple backward pass, spun and disguised a ball into Odegaard’s feet, which led to a penalty claim on Nketiah. He started carrying it more after a quick talk from Arteta during an injury break and in the 36th minute, he broke away from his man at the edge of the box to slip through Nketiah, who missed the clearest chance of the game.

Arsenal started to have consolidated momentum, helped by Rice’s ability to prevent counter-attacks and his reading of second-ball situations.

It was a leader’s performance and his celebrations with the away fans in the corner told of how much he enjoyed that hard-fought win. Arteta said Rice was a “boss” in midfield and that to have shown that all-action presence already is a testament to how quickly he is learning.

While this summer’s rule change may have hurt Tomiyasu and Arsenal, last year’s decision to make five substitutes permanent certainly helped them get over the line. Even with injuries to Timber and Gabriel Jesus, the depth of Arsenal’s squad proved pivotal.

Against Palace, Arteta turned to Gabriel, who was left on the bench in successive games after being selected to start the 73 Premier League games in a row beforehand. He has interest from Saudi Arabia but he was handed the captain’s armband and put in a commanding cameo, showing why Arteta refused to engage with questions over his future after the game.

He then sent on Jorginho to shore up the midfield. The Italian’s head was on a swivel the full time, his lips never ceasing to instruct others to close gaps, pass on a man, keep the ball.

Arsenal didn’t do much of the latter, though, instead dropping back straight after the red card. Did they have to concede so much territory so early?

A beaming Arteta didn’t seem to care. “I loved it, absolutely loved it,” he said.

(Top photo: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)