After picking up their first three points of the season away at Selhurst Park, the Gunners can take away many positives from the game.
It wasn’t a fantastic victory, but it was points on the board and that is the most important thing, with goals coming either side of a fine Joel Ward equaliser, firstly from Olivier Giroud, who volleyed well past the helpless Alex McCarthy, and midway into the second half, Alexis Sanchez’s header deflected off Damien Delaney sealed the points.
The side from north London started their season off poorly, failing to grab a single point against West Ham at the Emirates Stadium, but if the Gunners can continue to dominate both on and off the ball the way they did today at Selhurst Park, the season could be a fruitful one.
Speaking to the media post-match, Aaron Ramsey commented on the game, claiming it was a hard-fought victory: “It was very hot and humid and that definitely showed in the last half an hour or 20 minutes.
“We were under pressure but we managed to dig in. We needed that after the first-day defeat.”
The Welshman then discussed the Gunners’ disappointing start to the season: “We did really well at the back end of last season. We had a good pre-season and then there is always disappointment in defeat but that might be a blessing in disguise [because] we now know how hard it is.
“You have to compete every game and we managed to do that today, we put in the effort and we got our rewards.”
Key to Arsenal’s victory today was their defensive efforts, not allowing Palace to gain the upperhand from set-pieces, and Ramsey agreed: “I think so, I think we were much better today defensively as a team.
“We showed that we defended the set-plays really well.
“We should have done that on the opening day but today we did and we can take the positives from that and hopefully we can go on a run.”
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