Crystal Palace Vs Arsenal 1-3: The Gunners Wins Dramatically

Two Arsenal players celebrate goal against Crystal Palace (Twitter @arsenal)

JAKARTA - Arsenal heated up ticket competition for European competition in the Premier League after winning a dramatic 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace in Week 37 at Selhurst Park Stadium, London, Wednesday local time (Thursday, western Indonesia time).

After Nicolas Pepe's opening goal was rewarded by Palace through Christian Benteke, Arsenal almost had to leave the game with just one point.

Saka ➡️ Tierney ➡️ Pepe ➡️ GOAL! 😎

#️⃣ #CRYARS pic.twitter.com/9q7ACkrTHg

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 19, 2021

But Gabriel Martinelli played a supersub role to restore Arsenal's lead in injury time which was recently accompanied by Martinelli's second.

The victory made Arsenal return to secure ninth position with 58 points, after being overtaken by Leeds United (56) a day ago.

Arsenal also opened their hopes of penetrating the Conference League zone or even the Europa League, because Mikel Arteta's team is now only one point behind Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, and Everton.

As for Palace (44), who had to accept Roy Hodgson's farewell home match ended in defeat, did not move from 13th, Antara reported according to the official Premier League website.

Arsenal appeared promising at the start of the match when Calum Chambers' dangerous cross forced goalkeeper Vicente Guaita to do his job of guarding the Palace goal.

But the hosts were more effective at attacking when the corner was ended by James Tomkins' relatively accurate header and Benteke's header was just a little too high over the net.

In the 35th minute, it was Arsenal who broke the deadlock to take the lead when Kieran Tierney's cross was completed with a Pepe volley in front of the home goal.

Two minutes later, a fight broke out in the middle of the field between Benteke and Mohamed Elneny to which referee Anthony Taylor responded by giving them a yellow card.

Arsenal's lead lasted until halftime, but in the 62nd minute, it vanished when Benteke made the Selhurst Park public cheer for his goal against the visitors.

Starting from a free-kick sent by Andros Townsend from the left flank, Benteke beats everyone in the Arsenal penalty box to head the ball past goalkeeper Bernd Leno to make the score 1-1.

The goal forced Arteta to use three of his substitution slots in record time, bringing in Martin Odegaard, Granit Xhaka, and Martinelli in an effort to add to Arsenal's pounding power.

The move recently proved effective, because in the first minute of injury time Martinelli was able to restore Arsenal's advantage using a pass from Odegaard.

Odegaard sent a cross into the far post area where Martinelli stood relatively free to beat Guaita and find the back of Palace's goal.

Momentum for the visitors' resurgence continued and in the fifth minute of injury time Pepe showed off individual action past two Palace defenders before scoring the goal to complete Arsenal's 3-1 win over the hosts.

Three 𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 @PremierLeague points! 🔥

#️⃣ #CRYARS

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 19, 2021

In the concluding match which will take place simultaneously on Sunday, May 23, Arsenal will host Brighton & Hove Albion at the Emirates while Palace travels to Anfield to face Liverpool.