Arsenal mentality pleases Arteta in win at Palace

Mikel Arteta praised Arsenal’s ability to ride out a second-half onslaught from Crystal Palace to make the perfect start to the Premier League season with a 2-0 win at Selhurst Park on Friday.

On the ground where the Gunners lost 3-0 in April to spark a late season collapse that cost them a place in the Champions League, Arteta’s men held out after Gabriel Martinelli’s header gave them a deserved half-time lead. Marc Guehi’s own goal late on then sealed the three points after Odsonne Edouard and Eberechi Eze had missed big chances for Palace.

“The win is the most important thing. To win the first match it builds confidence, momentum,” said Arteta. “To win here you need to suffer. We’ve done it and that is part of the mentality we want to build.”

Arsenal were beaten 2-0 at Brentford on the opening night of last year’s season, which triggered their worst start to a league campaign for 67 years. But they backed up their blistering pre-season form and rewarded the faith placed in Arteta with over £100 million to spend in the transfer market.

Gabriel Jesus slalomed through the centre of the Palace defence and when his initial effort was blocked, Martinelli should have done better than slot the rebound wide of the target.

The visitors were utterly dominant in the opening quarter, but it took a set-piece to make the breakthrough.

Another debutant Oleksandr Zinchenko nodded a corner back across goal and Martinelli’s header had just enough power to beat Vicente Guaita.

Palace penned Arteta’s men back in the second period, but again failed to take their chances when they came along.

Eberechi Eze was the most guilty as he fired tamely into Ramsdale’s body with just the Arsenal number one to beat.

“The difference between the two teams is they score the goals,” said Palace boss and former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira. “We created two really good chances to score and we didn’t take our chances.”