Eberechi Eze produced the decisive moment that extended Arsenal\u2019s lead at the top of the Premier League to four points. His 39th-minute finish, his first for Arsenal in the competition, arrived from a set-piece that opponents will use to tease the club as \u201cSet-Piece FC.\u201d Arsenal supporters, unconcerned by the label, celebrated a single goal and three points that matter more than style.<\/p>\n
The goal arrived as Declan Rice curled a free-kick toward Gabriel at the far post. Yeremy Pino had conceded the set-piece after a na\u00efve moment on the right. Adam Wharton was nominally charged with tracking Eze, who began ten yards out and then slipped into the space in front of the penalty spot. Under the watchful eye of the Three Lions head coach Thomas Tuchel, Eze leapt, twisted his body and executed a scissors-like connection that sent the ball beyond Dean Henderson. The finish required athleticism and technique, qualities Arsenal\u2019s recruitment paid for when they signed him for \u00a365 million ($86.6 million) and handed him the No. 10 shirt.<\/p>\n
Eze, 27, had previously opened the scoring for Palace in the corresponding fixture last season, and Arsenal\u2019s move to buy him followed evidence of the damage he could do. He had represented Palace 169 times, scored 40 goals, helped them win the FA Cup, and aided their qualification for Europe. Palace earned a reported \u00a340 million profit on him over five years.<\/p>\n
The afternoon contained nervy moments. Viktor Gy\u00f6keres almost sought a late goal in injury time rather than run down the clock by the corner flag, prompting anxious reactions inside the Emirates. Around 3,000 Palace supporters applauded Eze when his name appeared in the lineups, a reminder of the \u201clove\u201d he will have for the people at Palace \u201cforever.\u201d Arsenal fans, however, were primarily counting points \u2014 three more toward a title they have not won in 21 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eberechi Eze’s set-piece goal settled a tense Emirates tie and stretched Arsenal’s advantage to four<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,465],"tags":[216,1019,253],"class_list":["post-4059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-crystal-palace","tag-adam-wharton","tag-creative-players","tag-declan-rice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059","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=4059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}