Arsenal started well, and were rewarded eight minutes in when a Pepe shot was smartly saved but Aubameyang was in the right place to tuck the ball in the net from a tight angle. For the rest of the half, Palace dominated and were unlucky not to score. The visitors continued the onslaught after the break and pounced on two egregious errors from our central midfielders, stealing possession and quickly scoring from sharp passing and fine shooting. It looked as though the Gunners were going down to a well-deserved defeat, but a stoppage time goal from late substitute Lacazette stole a point that Arsenal's poor performance did not merit.
It could be said that Mike Dean did us no favors (surprise!) by not brandishing a red card for a brutal kick to Saka that took him out of the game at 1-0. That player could well have gotten a previous yellow, too, so he and Palace were doubly fortunate. But at even strength, Palace were the better team and have to be disappointed.
This makes two poorly played draws after the two 1-0 wins against the two worst teams in the league and the thumping of Spurs. So, Arsenal have looked really good in one league game out of eight, OK in two, and poor to awful in the other five. We're a scrapping mid-table team at present, far from a contender for European places. I love how we've freshened up the personnel, but our manager is not bringing the best out of them. He's new at managing and maybe he will learn, but I get this Wenger vibe out of him that tells me he thinks he knows best and is going to keep plugging away with inferior tactics. I hope I'm wrong. These players will improve (they are almost all quite young) and they need leadership that can maximize their potential.
Crystal Palace continues to struggle with holding onto leads in the late minutes. Palace has also only had one or two decent games, the comeback against Leichester City and the taking full advantage of s short handed Tottenham team.
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