Hodgson's dreary days at Palace are numbered but they can upset misfiring Arsenal

Gavin Cooney

IT IS THE luxury of the megaclub to fashion disaster from a couple of poor results, whereas the mid-table sail grimly and quietly on through months of mundane underachievement. 

One win in five league games mean Arsenal are now in season-salvage mode tomorrow against Crystal Palace, who are enduring a dreary season. Such is the level of attention and the rarified level of competition to which Arsenal are subject, they are currently in the grip of what football’s media-industrial complex calls a crisis. 

It is hardly a hopeless situation, given they are five points off leaders Liverpool, who are currently denuded by injury and international absentees. More ominously, though, they are three points behind a Man City side widely agreed to be just about kicking into gear. 

So Arteta has to turn things around. One fact that should help them is this wretched run in front of goal surely cannot continue: Arsenal have had 48 shots across their previous two home games and failed to score with any of them. 

But while that level of inaccuracy may be the stuff of statistical quirks, it is true to say Arsenal’s attacking output this season has declined. It has been argued that Arsenal have been figured out by their opponents but the problem is too much has changed.  

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The sale of Granit Xhaka and the injury to Thomas Partey means Arsenal have lost two-thirds of the exquisitely balanced midfield from last season. Xhaka’s sale appeared unavoidable but replacing him with Kai Havertz hasn’t worked: it has greatly reduced their progressive passing and Gabriel Martinelli has been its chief victim. 

It also appears that Arteta is already growing conservative. Tim Stillman’s recent observations for Arseblog on this subject are fascinating: he argues that Arteta has become more concerned with opposition counter-attacks, and so to avoid being cut open through the middle of the pitch, Arsenal are funnelling the ball out wide. This has led to Saka and Martinelli getting on the ball earlier, and therefore in deeper, less threatening positions.

Arteta did shake up his formation in the FA Cup tie against Liverpool, and had Havertz et al not been so profligate in front of goal, it may have been hailed as a success. Rather than the traditional 4-3-3, Arteta picked a kind of 4-2-2-2, with Odegaard and Havertz picked as No.10s behind Saka and Reiss Nelson. That formation was effective in smothering Liverpool in the first-half of the game, pressing them into several errors on which Arsenal didn’t capitalise. It took until half-time for Jurgen Klopp to suss it out and adjust, which helped to win the tie for his side. 

Perhaps Arteta will stick with that approach against Palace, who are having an increasingly grey and unhappy season. Roy Hodgson was roundly booed by the travelling support at Goodison Park on Wednesday, jeers that were sparked by his decision to sub Eberechi Eze with 30 minutes remaining. Hodgson has been spiky all season, characteristically bridling at the gall of anyone who might object and ask for bolder ambition in his approach and style of play. This resolute conservatism was the reason he failed so spectacularly at Liverpool, and, we must remember, why he was ditched by Palace in 2021. 

The club deemed Patrick Vieira as tomorrow’s man, until relegation loomed and the club panicked in deciding better yesterday’s man than the prospect of no tomorrow at all. Hodgson steadied them admirably but is now living through the irritating reality that he never was the man to bring the club to the next level. 

Palace should be one of the most fun teams in the Premier League: they lie upon a hotbed of football talent, their stadium is genuinely atmospheric, and their team is currently studded with star quality in Eze and Michael Olise.

Yet Palace have scored just 22 goals in 20 grinding league games this season, and Hodgson will likely be fired if their five-point buffer over the relegation zone is at all reduced. If not then Hodgson will leave in the summer, with another year of dreary but secure life experience in the bank. 

Palace fans are forgiven for thinking mid-table competence should be a little bit more exciting than this. 

Their doughtier qualities have been useful against the big boys this season, however: they’ve won away to Man United and drawn away to City, while were a last-gasp winner away from a draw at home to Liverpool. Palace struggles have come against teams of broadly their level. They have won only four of their games against teams in the bottom half, and only two of them have been by more of a goal. 

It is within their capacity to frustrate Arsenal tomorrow, though. This is the kind of game from which nobody might go home happy. 

On TV: Arsenal vs Crystal Palace, TNT Sports 1; KO: 12.30pm