The Gunners made the worst possible start to the quarter-final as Jean-Philippe Mateta scored after just three minutes.
Arsenal's 3-2 victory against Crystal Palace in the league cup
0 seconds of 1 minute, 14 seconds
They struggled to find the equaliser in the opening half which forced manager Mikel Arteta to make some changes at the break.
Thomas Partey and Ethan Nwaneri were replaced with William Saliba and Martin Odegaard respectively.
The latter changed the complexion of the game. Odegaard provided a brilliant through ball for Gabriel Jesus to equalise.
Jesus made it 2-1 for the Gunners from a Bukayo Saka assist. He seemed to be offside, but there was no VAR to intervene.
Odegaard delivered another sublime long pass for Jesus, who had an easy task of beating the goalkeeper in a one-on-one.
Jesus missed a similar opportunity against Monaco, but he capitalised yesterday to bag his maiden Gunners hat-trick.
Eddie Nketiah scored on his return to the Emirates Stadium for Palace, but it was only a consolation strike.
Jesus was awarded the man of the match, but Odegaard had an equally good performance with two important assists.
The captain had a passing accuracy of 91 percent with 100 percent of his long balls and 100 percent of his dribbles completed. He received a 8/10 rating from football.london.
Odegaard has not been at his best over the past three games and yesterday’s showing should be a confidence booster.
Arsenal face Crystal Palace on the road in the Premier League on Saturday evening.
The derby is a must-win for the Gunners as they are already six points behind Liverpool, who have a game in hand at Everton.
Arteta is expected to go with his strongest XI with Odegaard, Saka, Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Declan Rice poised to return.
0 Comments