Arsenal got off the mark for the season as Damien
Delaney’s second-half own goal gave them a 2-1 win at Crystal Palace, Sky
Sports reports.
The Irishman shinned an Alexis Sanchez header
into his own net (55) after Olivier Giroud (16) and Joel Ward (28) had
exchanged excellent first-half goals, ensuring an immediate Arsenal response to
their opening-day shocker against West Ham.
Palace are entitled to think it might have been
different but for Lee Mason’s lenient treatment of Francis Coquelin’s
persistent misdemeanours, but there was enough early swagger and defensive
character about the visitors to encourage belief last week’s performance was a
false start and no more.
And Arsene Wenger will have noted that the
improvement was in no small part down to his decision to restore Santi Cazorla
to the central role in which he excelled in the second half of last season.
The Spaniard’s place on the left was taken by
Sanchez, whose extended spell on the sidelines lasted all of 67 minutes last
week before the SOS went out and who was deemed fit to start at Selhurst Park.
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