Crystal Palace - 1 (Riihilahti 65.)
Arsenal - 1 (Henry 63.)
The late kick off gave everyone just that little more time to get ready for the days festivities, and those that could not get to the ground huddled around their television sets, be it in Croydon or just about any other point in the world. Those in the USA and Canada were up somewhere in the vicinity of early to mid morning, whilst those in Australia and New Zealand were up in the wee hours of the morning, the next day. Other points on the globe, in every possible time zone, were watching with interest - and we were not disappointed.
Crystal Palace had one change enforced on them, as Fitz Hall had not recovered from his injury in time, and Gonzalo Sorondo took his place for his first start in the premiership. Palace kicked off in the first half, and the first piece of action saw Patrick Vieira cross the ball into the centre, and Gonzalo made the clearance. This was followed by a shot on goal by Jose Antonio Reyes, which was well held by Gabor Kiraly, and shortly after top scorer in the League, Thierry Henry, saw his shot miss to the left of the upright.
A corner to our visitors was well cut out by Gabor, and Gonzalo blocked the next shot that came in, this time from Francesc Fabregas, but it was rapidly becoming fairly obvious that we were in for a long hard battle, and with only Andy Johnson up front, presumably very few shots on goal in reply to the lion's share of possession that was being afforded Arsenal. Henry tried another shot that sailed well over the bar before AJ almost got free, the linesman (assistant referee) ruling he had just strayed offside. Gonzalo sustained a knock, later diagnosed as a hamstring injury, and was immediately replaced by Mikele Leigertwood, a move that proved our depth in the squad.
Bisan Lauren tried a cross into our area, but the defence was once again equal to the task, and as the ball flew back towards our goal Mikele ensured that Reyes was not going to get his name on the scoresheet. Michael Hughes finally managed to get a cross into the danger area, but the ball merely ran out of play, and Jens Lehmann was left with the simple task of taking a goal kick. Reyes tried another shot that was kept out by Tony Popovic, and a corner to Palace, swung in by Ben Watson, was cleared by Lauren.
Kolo Toure had a shot that Gabor did well to push away, and the resulting corner led to Fabregas drilling a shot at goal that Emmerson Boyce managed to get in the way of. Robert Pires tried his luck, but our keeper, who was having a fairly good day, particularly considering the standard of the opposition, easily saved the shot.
AJ was caught offside again, and Henry tried to get the ball back into our area, but his cross went awry, and Danny Granville was simply left to take a throw-in from the sideline. Fredrik Ljungberg managed a shot on goal that Gabor again caught, and without further ado the half came to an end with honours even.
One cannot doubt that Iain Dowie would have been by far the happier of the two managers during the break, but he may well have been upset that we did not have a single decent chance on goal, and he would have been looking for things to improve during the second stanza. We had gradually got ourselves into the game, and a little bit of luck could just see us "stealing" all three points.
Arsenal got the second half underway, and within moments Pascal Cygan ended up being booked for a foul on AJ, which did, admittedly, upend Andy just as he looked set to advance on goal. Wayne Routledge sent the free kick in, but Lauren was on hand to again make the clearance. Ashley Cole fired in a shot that missed to the left of the upright, and as Wayne appeared to have received a knock Vassilios Lakis was brought on to replace him. In the time he was on the pitch he looked a fine player, and we can all look forward to seeing more of him during the rest of the season.
Reyes tried another shot that Gabor did well to hang on to, before Fabregas saw his shot go wide of the post once again. The same player then headed the ball over the top of the bar from a corner played in by Henry, but shortly after they were on the board, with Ljungberg firing in a cross that Henry managed to slide onto, slotting the ball into the back of the net, as the defence tried to close him down. 1-0 down, were the floodgates about to open, with Arsenal going on their usual spree of goal scoring, now they had remembered how?
Not likely, we all said. Within two minutes we were back on level terms as Vassilios sent the ball across the front of goal, and as the keeper kept a wary eye on AJ the ball went past our prolific striker, and Aki Riihilahti was there to stick out a foot and bang the ball home into the back of the net. Back on level terms, and everything now to play for.
AJ sent in a cross that Vassilios really should have done much better with, as he managed to sky the ball over the top of the bar from only a few yards out, and one cannot help feeling that had he hit it with his left foot instead of his right it would have sailed into the back of the unguarded net. Fabregas tried another shot that Gabor held on to quite easily, and almost straight away at the other end AJ sent in a cross that Mikele got his head to, his attempt going just wide of the mark, leaving the keeper with a simple goal kick.
Arsenal decided on a double substitution, bringing on Dennis Bergkamp and Robin Van Persie for Ljungberg and Pires respectively, but it was Reyes that tried the next shot on goal, his attempt going wide of the upright, much to the relief of the Palace faithful.
Van Persie had a shot that Gabor managed to punch away, and shortly after both sides made their final change, Palace bringing on Dougie Freedman for Joonas Kolkka whilst Arsenal sent on Mathieu Flamini for Fabregas. Bergkamp saw his shot well saved by Gabor before Dougie was caught offside at the other end. A corner to Arsenal saw the end of normal time, but as the defence beat the ball back out of the danger area the fourth official somehow found three minutes of added on time, leaving us a few more minutes of collective holding of breath, as we awaited the final whistle.
We were then treated to the sight of Dougie, AJ and Michael holding the ball up in the corner, making little attempt to do anything other than wind the clock down, and though the referee somehow managed to "forget" to blow his whistle until some four and a half minutes had elapsed, we had held on to a 1-1 draw, and we now looked forward to the rest of what was originally billed as "nightmare" November. It continues with a Cup fixture on Wednesday against Manchester United at Old Trafford, and based on recent performances, surely we can once again give a good account of ourselves, and come away with, perhaps, a date in the next round of the Cup. If not, well, there is always Liverpool next Saturday at Anfield to keep us occupied.
Colin Pryce
Crystal Palace: Gabor Kiraly, Emmerson Boyce, Danny Granville, Tony Popovic, Gonzalo Sorondo (Mikele Leigertwood 24), Ben Watson, Aki Riihilahti, Michael Hughes, Joonas Kolkka (Dougie Freedman 80), Wayne Routledge (Vassilios Lakis 52), Andy Johnson.
Substitutes not used: Julian Speroni, Sandor Torghelle.
Arsenal: Jens Lehmann, Ashley Cole, Pascal Cygan, Bisan Lauren, Kolo Toure, Francesc Fabregas (Mathieu Flamini 81), Fredrik Ljungberg (Dennis Bergkamp 72), Robert Pires (Robin Van Persie 72), Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Jose Antonio Reyes.
Substitutes not used: Manuel Almunia, Philippe Senderos.
Attendance: 26,193
Referee: Mr M Dean