Arsenal advanced to the semifinal of the Carabao Cup with an 8-7 penalty shootout win over Crystal Palace after the visitors equalized deep into second half stoppage time. Don’t let the scoreline deceive you — Arsenal thoroughly dominated that match. If it wasn’t for the heroics of Walter Benitez in the Palace net, it would have been a multi-goal Arsenal win. Mikel Arteta significantly rotated his side, the Gunners bossed the game, and (eventually) advanced. You really can’t have many complaints
after that!
There are two main “negative” takeaways from today’s contest: chance conversion and conceding late. Personally, I think Arsenal only managing one goal (an own goal) from 3.3 xG is more Benitez playing a blinder than Arsenal’s finishing. The Palace keeper made some tremendous saves. Other than Noni Madueke’s chance in the opening minute that he put right at the keeper, you can’t take much issue with Arsenal’s shooting. Over the last three matches, Arsenal have generated nearly 6 expected goals but have only scored a penalty and forced three own goals. At some point, that’ll turn. And some poor opponent is going to have a bad time.
Slightly more worrying is conceding another late goal. Sunderland, Aston Villa, Wolves, and now Palace. That’s not something you want to make a habit of. Palace’s goal came because William Saliba misjudged a bouncing ball (his biggest weakness as a football) and conceded a free kick that allowed service into the box. Arsenal lost Marc Guehi, who started from a bit deeper and darted into space to touch home Jefferson Lerma’s knockdown header. Riccardo Calafiori wanted a foul on the aerial duel and while there was enough contact to call one, it was not enough that you’d give a foul with VAR (which wasn’t in use at this stage of the competition anyway), nor was it enough to be upset that it wasn’t called. Arsenal lost a header then lost a man. Both of those things should improve when Gabriel returns to the lineup, so it’s not a huge worry. Just something to keep an eye on.
But we shouldn’t get too wrapped up in looking for areas to criticize. Arsenal played really well. The attack ripped Crystal Palace apart in the first half. Gabriel Martinelli had his best half of the season and could have had multiple assists. Noni Madueke was cooking. Ebere Eze, despite a few turnovers trying to thread the needle, was causing trouble and creating chances. Gabriel Jesus looked great, again. It’s a fantastic, welcome surprise that the Brazilian forward is significantly contributing this soon after returning from a serious knee injury. It was excellent — apart from the lack of goals. And while that’s a bit “other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln,” it’s exactly what you want to see from your attack. Keep creating chances and the goals will come.
Palace were better in the second half, although Arsenal held them to no shots on target until their goal, which ended up as their only shot on target. The Gunners fired 25 shots, their most in a match all season. I cannot stress enough how one-way the traffic was in this match.
Sure, Arsenal’s goal was a Palace own goal, but you don’t score that goal without being dangerous from set pieces and putting the ball into a promising area. And you don’t win that set piece without forcing the save of the match from Benitez to keep out Gabriel Jesus after an end-to-end Arsenal attacking move. Leandro Trossard was instrumental to that attacking move, as was Mikel Merino’s stretching tackle to knock the ball away outside the Arsenal box to end a helter-skelter sequence.
I’d point out that on the Palace corner just before all that, the flag should have gone up against JP Mateta. Ironically, Mateta kept Will Hughes’ header out of the Arsenal net, but he also did so from an offside position. And even if he hadn’t touched the ball, he was offside and interfering with Kepa. The flag didn’t go up. There is no way to know if it would have had the ball gone in, and without VAR in use, we could have been quite salty.
Christian Norgaard was excellent for Arsenal. Hopefully his strong performance makes Mikel Arteta more comfortable deploying him to get Declan Rice a bit more rest. Myles Lewis-Skelly looked sharp, too. The teenager hasn’t played much this season and has, understandably, looked a bit rusty when he has.
Fifteen of the sixteen penalties taken were tremendous. You wouldn’t expect any keeper to have saved them. But the poorly taken one was the 16th taken, struck by Maxence Lacroix, and Kepa made the save. It was a night to forget for the Palace defender — the ball came off his foot for the Arsenal own goal and it was his penalty saved. Getting a penalty shootout win under their belts can only be a good thing for this squad down the road. But you’d just as soon not need penalties again in any competition!
The win sets up a two-legged semifinal against Chelsea on January 14th and February 3rd. I don’t love the prospect of adding two tough games to the schedule, but I do like the idea of winning silverware! Those two additional matches mean that Arsenal will not have a midweek off until February, which isn’t great. Mikel Arteta will have his work cut out for him to properly rotate his squad. The Gunners host Brighton on Saturday and Aston Villa on Tuesday to close out 2025.
