Mikel Areta did not hide his contempt for Arsenal’s limp appearance in a 2-2 draw at home on Wednesday evening.
The Gunners took the lead twice before Jean-Philippe Mateta appeared from the bank in the 83rd minute to splagers a bold balance via David Raya. A draw made sure that Arsenal can only correspond to the current balance of 79 points in Liverpool, which gave the red to seal the Premier League title mathematically by avoiding a defeat against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon.
“I am disappointed with the result and the performance,” sighed Areteta, after calling his team on their 13th league of the campaign. “We never got the consistency in many areas to completely dominate the game.
“We always had the feeling that we had the ball, we had possessions, we were going twice, but we didn’t pack the game and not dominated and checked it as if we normally do it. We were in some areas under the standards.
“If you are not in the best form, but are twice in advance, you have to look the game and we couldn’t do it, especially with the second goal. We couldn’t see games too small for many reasons.”
Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner was rightly enthusiastic about the performance of his site. The Eagles not only frustrated their hosts with an organized block, but also shot the Gunners from 15 to 12. “I saw a lot of arsenal games and can’t remember a team with as many clear opportunities as we were,” enthused the Austrian coach. Only Manchester City registered more shots on Target in a game of the Premier League against Arsenal this season.
Areta called a strong starting eleven, especially for Bukayo Saka and Mikel Merino. “Hopefully not,” he answered bluntly.
“I don’t want to use it. Obviously we missed many players, many players were not available, so we were very short. But also the Palace, they are very well organized, they are a really good side and they also made it difficult for us and reality that we were not at our best today.”