Damien Delaney: Costly Own Goal

After slumping to a dismal 2-0 defeat against West Ham United in their Premier League opener, Wenger’s side had no margin for error at Selhurst Park if they wanted to avoid being cast adrift in the title race.

Connor Wickham, making his first start for Palace since a summer switch from Sunderland, guided a close-range shot against the post in the 48th.

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.

The Gunners took the lead in the 15th minute, when Olivier Giroud acrobatically opening the scoring with an overhead kick from Mesut Ozil’s cross from the left.

“We made it hard for ourselves, but overall it was a very encouraging performance from top to bottom”.

With Arsenal eager to find the goal to kill the game, the match opened up as Crystal Palace threw players forward in search of the equaliser.

Arsenal did take the lead on with a superb goal from Giroud. “It was a bad performance last week but even though we lost last week the most important in football is to bounce back the week after and keep your faith in your game, which is what we tried to do and succeeded to do today”.

On the win, Wenger added: “I’m very pleased with the three points”.

“To get the three points was already a little bit of a turning point in the Premier League for us because to lose would have been a big blow mentally”, said Wenger.

“Alex Sanchez has only had two weeks of training but still he had the mental resources to score us a vital goal today”.

“I don’t believe so”, Wenger answered when asked if Coquelin should have been shown a second yellow.

“That (the need for those talks) was the case last week when w e came out of the (West Ham) match where no-one knew exactly what we did, so we just had to come back to our game”. It’s a pleasure to watch his passing.

The Gunners also made fewer defensive mistakes and looked a lot more confident on the ball with Santi Cazorla in the centre of the pitch, although his partner Coquelin should’ve been sent off for multiple rash challenges throughout the match.

Yohan Cabaye says the opportunity to work under Alan Pardew again and the lure of returning to the Premier League were behind his move to Crystal Palace.