August 16 2015

Joel Ward (Photo: Andy Roberts)

Crystal Palace went down to their first defeat of the season, losing 2-1 at home to Arsenal.

The Eagles will be aggrieved to have not got something from this London derby as they hit post and Arsenal were fortunate to have 11 men on the field.

Arsenal, looking to recover from their opening-day loss, raced out out of the blocks and Alexis Sanchez had three gilt-edged chances to score in the opening stages - the closest of which was when James McArthur hacked a shot off the line.

However, the Gunners eventually found the net on 16 minutes when Mesut Ozil robbed Joel Ward on the left and the German's floater was acrobatically turned in by Olivier Giroud.

The North Londoners pressed for another as Sanchez forced Eagles stopper Alex McCarthy into a stretching save.

Palace equalised on 28 minutes with a fine goal themselves through the unlikely of players in Ward. Yannick Bolasie chested to McArthur who laid it off to Ward, and the right back drilled a low shot into the bottom left corner 25 yards out.

After the break, the woodwork denied Palace a goal as Connor Wickham nipped in front of Laurent Koscielny to divert Wilfried Zaha's right-wing cross onto upright.

But Arsenal went back in front on 55 minutes after Hector Bellerin's deep cross from the right was headed down by the tiny Sanchez and the ball ricocheted in off Damien Delaney.

Francis Coquelin - who had been yellow carded in the first period and avoided a second cautionable offence by pushing Wilfried Zaha - clattered into McArthur right in front of Lee Mason just past the hour-mark - but the referee chose to ignore it. Arsene Wenger took the Frenchman off shortly afterwards.

Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could have added gloss to the scoreline for the Gunners, while half-time sub Jordon Mutch nodded over and the Eagles will be frustrated not to have claimed at least a point against the title chasers.

Palace: McCarthy, Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souare, Cabaye, McArthur (Bamford 80), Zaha (Chung-Yong 76), Puncheon, Bolasie (Mutch 46), Wickham.

Not used: Hennessey, Mariappa, Jedinak, Murray.

Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin (Oxlade-Chamberlain 64), Ramsey, Sanchez (Arteta 75), Ozil (Gibbs 83), Cazorla, Giroud.

Not used: Ospina, Debuchy, Gabriel, Walcott

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Palace manager Alan Pardew: "The game changed on two incidents. We hit the post at 1-1 and you have to argue they are lucky to have 11 players. Everyone knew in the stadium Francis Coquelin should have gone.

"The game was very even, they play a different style. They were good, much better than against West Ham. Sharper in the mind and we still feel aggrieved we haven't come out with anything.

"Arsenal were a hurt animal but the early period was bad for us, we made a lot of mistakes."

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger: "Our fluency was good in the first half and our mental response was good at 1-1.

"It was a bit scary to look at the chances we missed - you thought we would be punished after that but we dug in and hung on in the last 10 minutes, and that too is important in the season.

"Alex Sanchez has only had two weeks of training but still he had the mental resources to score us a vital goal today. We know it's not a 100 per cent-fit Sanchez but a 100%-motivated Sanchez, and that at times can be enough."

And there my friends within 60 seconds you see the problems with today's referees, identical fouls, 1 yellow one nothing !

— Rodney Marsh (@RodneyMarsh10) August 16, 2015