December 28 2017

James Tomkins

Crystal Palace's unbeaten run came to an end with a 3-2 defeat at home to Arsenal.

Roy Hodgson's side were aiming to extend their unbeaten streak of eight matches but found the visiting Gunners too strong to handle.

They had to soak up pressure from an Arsenal side full of short, intricate passing but the back four held firm – until conceding in the 25th minute.

Alexandre Lacazette's shot was pushed out by Julian Speroni and the ball rebounded to Shkodran Mustafi on the left and he fired into the back of the net.

Four minutes after break Palace drew level though Andros Townsend, who struck a left-foot shot into the bottom corner from Wilfried Zaha's cut-back.

Arsenal regained the lead in the 62nd minute after Christian Benteke's weak clearance found Calum Chambers, who crossed back in, Alexis Sanchez headed the ball down and Lacazette gave it back to him to score.

Just four minutes later, Arsenal made it 3-1 through Sanchez again who collected Jack Wilshere's inch-perfect pass over the top and he flicked beyond Speroni.

James Tomkins gave Palace a lifeline on 89 minutes with a headed consolation from Townsend's corner but the Eagles ran out of time.

Palace: Speroni, Kelly (Fosu-Mensah 80), Tomkins, Dann, Schlupp, Townsend, Milivojevic, Cabaye (McArthur 53), Loftus-Cheek (Sako 70), Zaha, Benteke.

Not used: Hennessey, Van Aanholt, Riedewald, Puncheon.

Arsenal: Cech, Chambers, Mustafi, Koscielny, Bellerin, Wilshere, Xhaka (Maitland-Niles 86), Kolasinac, Ozil, Sanchez, Lacazette (Coquelin 75).

Not used: Ospina, Holding, Iwobi, Walcott, Welbeck.

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