Arsenal closed the Premier League season with a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in a match that felt like a deliberate exercise in squad management. Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring in the 42nd minute after Gabriel Martinelli toe-poked the ball to him; Jesus broke past Jefferson Lerma and placed his near-post drive just beyond Dean Henderson.<\/p>\n
Three minutes into the second half Noni Madueke added a second when he side-footed a volley from Martinelli\u2019s corner to make it 2-0. Madueke was the most consistent attacking threat on the night and produced the game\u2019s busiest offensive performance. Jean-Philippe Mateta pulled one back with a late header flick in the 89th minute, and Palace thought they had an equaliser in stoppage time only for it to be ruled offside.<\/p>\n
Both clubs clearly prioritised upcoming fixtures. Arsenal had already secured the Premier League title and rested several regulars. Bukayo Saka, William Saliba, David Raya, Declan Rice and Gabriel were omitted from the starting lineup. The former three did not train on Thursday and each had individual programmes; Saliba and Raya were not called up. Gabriel entered as a second-half substitute.<\/p>\n
Crystal Palace are also focused on the near future, preparing for the Europa Conference League final against Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday. The two sides used heavily rotated squads and a subdued tempo, with an emphasis on protecting fitness ahead of their cup finals.<\/p>\n
Substitutions had impact: Kai Havertz, introduced at half-time, set up the Madueke goal shortly after coming on. Eberechi Eze received a standing ovation from the home fans when he entered. Madueke later suffered an apparent left leg issue and was replaced by Victor Gy\u00f6keres.<\/p>\n
Match metrics underline Arsenal\u2019s control: 61% possession to Palace\u2019s 39%, expected goals 2.56 to 1.11, 17 total shots to 8, seven shots on target to three, and a pass accuracy of 89% versus 79%. The result completed a low-risk finish to the league campaign as both clubs now turn attention to major cup finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal ended the season with a rotated XI, a 2-1 win at Selhurst Park that preserved energy. Ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1381,465,172],"tags":[1162,1637,1305],"class_list":["post-14030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal-match-reports","category-crystal-palace","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-assists","tag-bench-selection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}