Crystal Palace 1
Arsenal 2
Arsenal travelled to Crystal Palace this afternoon with the hope of banishing last week's defeat to West Ham from the minds of their supporters.
Arsene Wenger decided to change up his system and reintroduce Alexis Sanchez to the starting XI in the hope of adding potency to his attack.
Palace, on the other hand, will have been buoyed by their opening day win away to Norwich and the organised way in which they did it added legitimacy to the work Alan Pardew has done with his side.
The Londoners started the brighter of the two sides, with chances inside the opening 10 minutes thanks to Sanchez and Cazorla and with a quarter of an hour gone, Olivier Giroud's acrobatic effort gave the visitors the lead.
Giroud Awesome Goal #Arsenal pic.twitter.com/UNQk5Lziad
— Feras | Ùراس â„ï¸ (@TrueFeras) August 16, 2015
Last week Arsenal looked sluggish in attack and Sanchez injected some much needed pace. On numerous occasions his pressing was key to winning back possession and setting an attack in motion.
Time and again he dispossessed Joel Ward, the weak link in the Palace rearguard this afternoon, but he can't be solely to blame, as he was left to deal with the overlap and got no real cover from Wilfried Zaha.
Both Zaha and Yannick Bolasie - another first team regular who made his return - gave Palace options left and right but their defensive tendencies were exposed on more than one occasion.
Bolasie had been linked with a move away this summer but showed just how valuable he is to the side during his involvement in the equaliser.
A lofted cross-field ball to the edge of the box was chested down by the 26-year-old to Connor Wickham who rolled the ball over to Ward to fire home a low shot from the edge of the box.
The defending wasn't superb and Petr Cech may be unhappy with the speed at which he got down to the ball, but at the break the sides went in level at a goal apiece.
Pardew's side were the busier of the two before the interval, with the goal on 30 minutes giving them the freedom to pass the ball around. Jason Puncheon busied himself in the middle of the park, winning ball and putting in tackles.
Nothing was getting out of the Arsenal defense without a fight.
Jordan Mutch came in for Bolasie at half-time in an effort to introduce a more tenacious midfielder and upset the Gunners' rhythm, but their defensive frailties that were exposed once again as Ward failed to compete from a cross and Sanchez climbed highest to head the ball goalward, only for it to be turned in off the boot of Damien Delaney.
The Chilean international used his pace and power for the duration of the afternoon to mark himself as one of the key players in this Arsenal side.
It was another solid performance from Yohan Cabaye for Palace, but he was unable to influence the game due to his deeper role in front of the defense.
A good sign for the travelling fans was the ability of Arsene Wenger's side to see the game out and moved the ball around quickly to kill whatever chance Palace had of getting back into the match.
Some signs of indecision from both sides, but the experience of the visitors which was enough to see them through, despite them giving their manager plenty of reason to shout at them frustrated in the closing minutes as Palace mounted several attacks.
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