Arsenal hit five past Crystal Palace as Bukayo Saka suffers ‘serious’ injury | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta masterminded an emphatic victory to move his side within three points of early season Premier League leaders Liverpool.

The title favourites have two games in hand, but Arsenal desperately needed a convincing win after dropping points in two consecutive draws coming into this match. The victory also means Arsenal pass through all of 2024 without losing a London derby.

The only negative for Arteta was an injury to Bukayo Saka which looked like a recurrence of the hamstring problem that kept him out of action for a few weeks earlier in the season.

Arteta, marking five years into his first managerial job, made seven changes from the side that knocked Palace out of the League Cup on Wednesday night. He sensibly stuck with hat-trick hero Gabriel Jesus, who maintained his midweek goalscoring form, scoring twice and hitting the woodwork multiple times.

Jesus picked up where he left off  by shooting Arsenal ahead after six minutes. Unmarked at the far post, he stole in to finish after Saka’s cross, deflected off Gabriel into the path of Jesus.

In an action-packed start goalkeeper David Raya nearly gifted Palace a quick equaliser when he dwelled on the ball and presented Will Hughes with a chance. And the Spanish keeper was empathically beaten in the 11th minute by Ismaila Sarr. Tyrick Mitchell played the Senegalese midfielder in against William Saliba and he opened up his body a la Thierry Henry to score with a curling right foot shot.

Selhurst Park has rarely been louder as the home fans sang their hearts out in belief they could come back and win.

It takes a lot to silence the home support here and Jesus, just for a bit, managed to do just that when he scored his and Arsenal’s second with 14 minutes gone. Palace looked to have repelled a Declan Rice corner but the Brazil forward planted a side-footed shot into the roof of the net from just inside the edge of the penalty area.

Aside from his League Cup hat-trick against Palace on Wednesday, Jesus had now scored more Premier League goal in 14 minutes than he had in his previous 28 matches. How he loves to be the star at Christmas!

The Saturday night drama did not abate as Saka limped off with what looked to be a serious muscle injury ten minutes later. What a miserable way for the England winger to mark his 250th Arsenal appearance.

Palace took the opportunity to get back in the attack against an uncharacteristically uncertain Arsenal defence.

Gabriel thudded a header from a 37th minute corner against the Palace crossbar and it appeared Arsenal’s chance to increase their lead before half-time had passed.

Any fears for the travelling arsenal fans were alleviated a minute later when Gabriel Martinelli found Jesus with a cross from the right and his Brazil fellow countryman headed against a post and just missed out on a hat-trick. Fortunately, for arsenal, Havertz remained alert to tap in the rebound.

Raya did well to keep out a Sarr diving header 53 seconds into the second half as Palace came out fighting. He was then busy keeping out a long range effort from Jean-Philippe Mateta and another Sarr effort. It was all Palace. Arsenal had to dig in.

They did just that and Arteta raised their tempo by sending on Declan Rice and Riccardo Calafiori with just over half an hour to go. Moments later, Jesus, who had hit the woodwork twice by now, had another effort superbly saved by Henderson and Gabriel Martinelli finished from the rebound. Rice curled in a classic to make it five after 84 minutes.

Game over.