Crystal Palace 1 (Ayew 54) v Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 12), played Saturday 11 January 2020 at Selhurst Park, attendance 25,468.
In a game of two halves, after Arsenal had totally dominated Crystal Palace for 50 minutes, honours were even with a 1-1 draw at South London’s Selhurst Park. The North Londoners’ Captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had opened the scoring after only 12 minutes, but thenArsenal failed to add to this and paid for it. Palace woke up in the second half and Jordan Ayew scored a well worked equalizer within 10 minutes of the restart. The tempo and competition increased after that, but too much so for Aubameyang who committed a clearly “dangerous play” tackle on the Eagles’ Max Meyer. Was it a Captain being over enthusiastic or a very poor “attacker’s tackle”? Either way it was a clear red card. Renewed pressure did not bring a winner for either side, but a draw means that Palace remain one point and one place above Arsenal in ninth, and one point and one place behind Spurs who have 30 pointsin the “big league” (F.A. Premier League).
Tottenham Hotspur Women were also playing a London-derby last weekend when they entertained West Ham Women in the WSL (F.A. Barclays Women’s Super League) and won 2-1 with a very late goal after West Ham’s late equalizer. This weekend Arsenal Women play Chelsea Women on Sunday 19 January.
Spurs are also in our next PLDs match away to Watford, resurgent under Nigel Pearson, in the lunch time kick-off on Saturday 18th. It is all square over the last 3 seasons as far as PLDs matches: in 2016-17 Watford 1 v Spurs 4; 2017-18 Watford 1 v Spurs 1; and 2018-19 Watford 2 v Spurs 1, a result Mauricio Pochettino called a reality check for Spurs. With Watford unbeaten in 5 games and 13 points to Spurs’ 4 with 3 defeats in their last 5, another defeat for Jose Mourinho’s side will underline the difficulties he faces in getting an under performing and injured squad into the top 6 let alone the top 4 for a European place.
Whatever your team’s form, until next time enjoy you football, Andrew at PLDs.