10-man Arsenal wins at Crystal Palace
Ten-man Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at Selhurst Park to consolidate their position at the top of the Premier League.
Mikel Arteta opened the scoring with a penalty two minutes into the second half, only to be shown a red card 13 minutes later for a professional foul on Marouane Chamakh.
Arsenal were indebted to their goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny for two crucial saves, before Olivier Giroud made sure of the points with an 87th minute header.
The Gunners almost took the lead within four minutes but Giroud’s header from Bacary Sagna’s cross drifted just inches over the bar.
Sagna thought he should have had a penalty after 13 minutes, when his cross hit Damien Delaney on the hand but referee Chris Foy turned down the Arsenal full-back’s appeal.
Former Gunner Chamakh shot straight at Szczesny when well-placed just before the half-hour mark, then just before the break the Moroccan mistimed his jump when unmarked in the centre and failed to get a head on a Mile Jedinak’s cross from the left.
Having held firm against the Arsenal attack in the first 45 minutes, Palace then gave away a soft goal two minutes into the second half.
Adlene Guedioura had no need to make a tackle on Serge Gnabrya in the area, but lunged in foolishly and left referee Foy with little option to award the penalty.
Arteta slammed the spot-kick past Palace goalkeeper Julian Speroni to condemn Palace to another game without a clean sheet.
The Spaniard then saw red on 65 minutes when he pulled back Chamakh on the halfway line.
The Palace striker still had an awful lot to do but Arteta was the last man, and referee Foy was right to show the red card.
Szczesny then made two brilliant saves in a minute from Joel Ward and then Jedinak, as managerless Palace looked to claw their way back into the game.
But Arsenal nerves were calmed three minutes before the end when Giroud headed the second from a lovely chipped Aaron Ramsey cross from the left.