Arsenal shrugged off the absence of Alexis Sanchez as they romped to a 4-1 victory over Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday.
The post-Alexis Sanchez era couldn't have started much better at the Emirates. Arsenal delivered their best attacking performance of the season by tearing apart Crystal Palace on Saturday, storming out of the gates with four goals in the opening 22 minutes to send a strong message that they can cope just fine without the Chilean star.
Left-back Nacho Monreal scored one goal and set up two more in the opening 13 minutes, with striker Alexandre Lacazette breaking his scoring drought with a well-taken strike to make it 4-0 in the 22nd. The only negative for Arsenal was Monreal having to come off after just 35 minutes, having just made his return from an injury. By then, though, the Spaniard had already decided the game for the Gunners.
Monreal first shook off his marker to meet Granit Xhaka's corner at the far post with a close-range header to open the scoring in the sixth minute, then picked out Alex Iwobi with a low cross for Arsenal's second four minutes later. And he was again picked out at the far post by a Xhaka corner shortly after, this time electing to square the ball for fellow defender Laurent Koscielny, who pushed it home from a yard out.It was a 13-minute spell that had the home crowd forgetting all about Sanchez in a hurry, though it must be said all three goals came after uncharacteristically poor defending from Crystal Palace, whose manager Roy Hodgson will be deeply disappointed with their lack of concentration.
For Arsenal, though, the shackles were well and truly off, and Mesut Ozil set up Lacazette goal with an almost playful back-heel pass. It was Lacazette first goal in 10 games, and will probably have a bigger impact on the France striker's confidence than on the game itself, which had already been decided. If Arsenal are to make a push to return to the top four, it will be up to Lacazette to pick up some of the scoring slack left behind by Sanchez -- whether Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang arrive at the club or not.
Luka Milivojevic pulled one back for the visitors in the 77th minute, but a comeback was never on the cards.
