So from not giving anything now the ref is giving everything. He seriously worries me

Bollocks. Lacazette error on attack, they go down our end and get another penalty. Poor ref decision

Banging on an old drum, i dont think Wenger would have approved of an attempt at goal. Perhaps a tap pass sideways or backwards, to start a series of passes around the penalty area.

What a dive !

Lacazette oh Lacazette, why such a dumb decision?

Totally brainless. You cannot do that with zaha.. he will make the most of any dangled leg. Fuming about that. This is the sort of game we needed to see out. It was from our attack and we played a poor pass and got counter attacked, 2-1 up 10 mins to go you cannot get counter attacked like that

Not that one. Bugger.

Getting panicked by such basic football. Balls tossed in to the box, quick players waiting for any sort of contact or opportunity to throw themselves down in the box.
Emery will talk about controlling the game, we’ve not kept the ball well at all since going 2-1up

Welbeck with the winner?

See my subsequent post about him suddenly whistling for everything just before the pen.
Both pens are pens, stupid from us on both occasions to give them the chance to go down but this ref has made me nervous all game with his interpretation on free kicks

More like playing a broken record that wasn't even that good to begin with. Of course Wenger wouldn't have minded a player trying to score from a free kick when there's an opportunity.

Monreal is a big miss. The whole balance of the team is screwed up. Losing Bellerin just made it worse.

So annoying to drop points to 2 penalties, it’s too easy a goal to give an opponent....twice.

We threw 2 points away.

But, Palace deserved their point. They showed more drive and committment. Our attack is poor today.

Nah! Disagree.

Pundits will moan about Lacazette’sobvious handball before Aubameyang goal but his shirt is clearly being tugged. The World Cup gave penalties for those in most games and it was brilliant, it stopped it happening - like most clamp downs it was quickly forgotten and holding and pulling shirts in the box is now seemingly fine. If the ref gives the handball he has to give the penalty for the shirt tug before

Palace the best they have been all season, overall they deserved a point but frustrating that we handed it to them with 2 silly tackles - but of a throw back to the last few seasons with these brainless tackles in the box

Not a good game from us, but not a disastrous result away all things considered. Remember we're still a work in progress. As nice as our recent run has been it was bound to end at some point. We're not an elite team. Some important lessons to be learned from this.

Sure, but we need to be a lot better than this before Liverpool. The thought of our defence facing an ominously in form Mané and co. next weekend is giving me the heeby-jeebies. The bubble might be well and truly burst.

Emery in for his first big test next week.

No natural left back, and Xhaka will be too busy if he plays there. Aubameyang was not helping out a lot today too. Should he continue with this pairing?

Team morale will definitely drop after today. What will Emery do? Lacazette's morale will likely be most affected.

Is Özil going to need special attention? He was clearly unhappy being substituted.

Yes indeed. That used to happen everytime under Wenger with free kicks. Just fannied around. Never just whacked it at goal.

That seems the fairest assessment right now. Unless Emery shows us he has a good Plan C.

Ok, I should have said " for the most recent seasons" 2016-17, 2017-18. More of playing it short than shots during those seasons.

Exactly Haz, our amazing but slightly fortuitous run has papered over some of the cracks, particularly defensively. We have allowed even mediocre teams great opportunities but thankfully few have been taken and we've ridden our luck, relying on superior fitness and attacking prowess to get us wins. Eventually it was going to bite us on the backside and whilst today was a little wake-up call the Liverpool game could be where our weaknesses are really exposed.

In my opinion Holding and Mustafi is not a great pairing. We need a worldclass CB (not easy to find with our budget ) or an elite youngster with worldclass potential.

I think to be truly competitive we need another CB, LB, a central midfielder and a winger.

The full backs have such an importance to the way Emery wants to play football. I don’t think he has the full backs to compete fully. Bellerin and Monreal are good. I think Bellerin still has a lot of potential under Emery. Monreal is very steady but is knocking on a bit.
Lichtsteiner is only a stop gap and I probably shouldn’t even be 2nd choice next year if he is still here.
Kolasinac is a wing back.
I think we need two top class flying full backs and we stil need the top class CB and winger.
But, when you see where we have been and the massively unbalanced squad wenger left, with overpaid poor players and players running their deals down none of this was going to be an overnight fix. It will need a minimum of 3 faultless transfer windows. Torreira, Sokratis, Leno, guendouzi all looking good for the now and future. Lichtsteiner on a free is not a bad signing either

Jon Moss with his usually ineptitude at old Trafford. Everton player wins the ball, martial goes over the Everton mans leg....then waits and throws himself, the both feet flicked up in the air type of dive....moss gives the pen.

You only throw away two points G7 if you've played well and committed some foolish error to gift the opposition an undeserved equaliser .


Hadn't seen one of our games live this year and given our lofty position I thought we were on fire , turned the corner etc .

Watched most of the first half ; very disappointed with our style . If I didn't know to the contrary I'd have thought Wenger was still in charge .

The continuous back passes under very little pressure , ponderous build ups to encounter a massed defence . Palace on the other hand had plenty of movement , got at us quickly , accurate passing , Zaha gave us problems . 38 minutes in , I decided back to bed was the better option .
We still lack muscle in mid field .
Thought we would give Liverpool a run but not much optimism after watching that half .

Why wasn’t Smalling given a second yellow card when he gave away the clear Everton penalty? If that was a winger going past the full back and he was chopped down as smalling did it is a certain yellow. This was in a more dangerous part of the pitch. The ref decides a penalty is enough punishment and doesn’t apply the rules of the game. Fed up with useless refs being so inconsistent. If there was some way of a ref being deaf to the crowd and unaware of the score or time it would be fascinating to see how they performed

Mustafi has always been a mistake waiting to happen. The sooner we are rid of him the better. Xhaka is what will happen when you are playing a person out of position. It's part of the learning curve.
Palace played great, its tough to see how they haven't scored a home goal all season till now.

Hilarious but so true....

No. Will not be supporting a Spurs win tomorrow. Here's to those noisy neighbours.

God it looks so cheap and nasty. How much is it?

Just under $ 20 USD

So after watching a 25 minutes highlight package I wisely did not lose my *%^@ & write an angry message calling for heads willy nilly. But now watching the whole match replayed & you know what I am a now sure that we need to get rid of Mustafi asap. Xhaka a 40 mil defensive player cannot defend at all & is a liability & we should get rid of him.

Ramsay - well for those who said he would put in an effort despite no contract - they are wrong. Disgraceful is being kind. And Wellbeck decided to return to his previous poor touches. Lacazette not for the first time this season made a stupid decision. Aubameyang hmmm.

This was a terrible performance & any repeat against Liverpool, City, Chelsea or Man U & we will get taken apart. There is a lot of work for Emery to do but a number of players at the club need to go. We were never in control of this game.

I think yesterday was something of a reality check. We are nowhere near as good as results in recent weeks have suggested. Our defence is very poor and only some real profligacy from our opponents when faced with golden opportunities and some outstanding (and clinical) attacking play from us has allowed us to keep the winning run going.

Mustafi is basically a headless chicken of a defender, reckless in thought and deed and positionally poor. Holding is doing reasonably well but really needs someone better than Mustafi alongside him to guide him through his developmental phase.

I don't think Guendouzi, as promising as he obviously is, is ready to play in a two man midfield in away games in the PL.

Iwobi is a strange combination of attacking verve with a dollop of headless chickenness.

Our first half performances are also a concern. We cannot go on indefinitely playing poorly in the first half and expecting some sort of second half revival to get us out of jail.

Leno is good with his feet and has made some outstanding reaction saves but he looks suspect with crosses.

He was put in a situation where even a natural full back would struggle – one on one with one of the better wingers in the league. He was put into that position because we needlessly gave away a counter attack when we were up 2-1. I think Xhaka overall did a good job in a position he’s not comfortable with, and we missed him in central midfield.

Agree about Mustafi though, he’s the one I would replace with a top quality signing. Hopefully in January. I like how Holding is developing, Sokratis looks like a fine signing and then there’s a big question mark surrounding Koscielny.

A bit worried about Bellerin missing the Liverpool game, as I’ve been really unimpressed with Licthsteiner. He’s got decent defensive instincts still but he’s slow and pretty dreadful on the ball. Bellerin would be a huge miss if he's out, he’s involved in scoring chances pretty much every game.

Any chance of the Mods giving this fool a "break"?

I think a 2-2 draw was a fair result given the context of the game - neither side deserved to lose the match and Palace will count themselves unfortunate with a couple of chances they created in the first half not hitting the net.

The second goal was very disappointing from an Arsenal point of view. Terrible pass from Lacazette; but really how Mustafi didn't have the gumption to take yer man out on the halfway line is bewildering. I was screaming at the telly - take him out, take him out! Zaha has bought the penalty mind you although we can't complain on this occasion as that was a blatant cheating by Lacazette for our second goal. I was embarrassed celebrating that goal in front of my son but then Zaha's dive illustrated how professional footballers are complete cheats in the main when it comes to it.....

If Bellerin and Monreal are not back for next week, I think we may suffer.

The full back situation is certainly a big worry - if there's any team you need your first choice defenders against it's Liverpool. The physio room has both Monreal and Kolasinac listed as a 'slight doubt' and Bellerin as a 'major doubt'. Hopefully they can patch them up and get them out there as playing Xhaka and Lichsteiner against Salah and Mané is a disaster waiting to happen.