Martin Keown hails one Crystal Palace player ‘very good’ against Arsenal

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Arsenal legend Martin Keown singled out Crystal Palace winger Michael Olise for praise after the Premier League leaders triumphed 4-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon, speaking on BBC’s Match of the Day 2. 

In the first game of the post Patrick Vieira era, Palace were outclassed by a Bukayo Saka-inspired Arsenal side who (whisper it) are now less than two months away from securing their first Premier League title since Keown was at the heart of that ‘Invincible’ backline. 

Arsenal cruised to a comfortable home win; Saka scoring twice while Granit Xhaka also found the net and Gabriel Martinelli put that Sporting Lisbon nightmare behind him. 

But Keown, who played alongside Vieira two decades ago, believes a plummeting Crystal Palace side can still pull themselves out of danger with talent like Olise, Wilfried Zaha and Cheick Doucoure at their disposal, and with a more ‘winnable’ run of fixtures on the horizon. 

Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 4-1 with Bukayo Saka shining

“(Palace have) some very talented players,” Keown says. “You saw that out here today. Olise, I thought, had a very good performance. And if you look at their remaining fixtures, I think they are all teams who are just below them in the table.

“It is in Palace’s own hands.”

Crystal Palace will face relegation battlers in each of their next six Premier League games; Leicester City, Leeds United, Southampton, Everton, Wolves and West Ham United. Win three of those and, given the congested nature of the table, The Eagles will soar towards the comfort of mid-table again.

“(Arsenal) are at the top of the league for a reason,” says Paddy McCarthy, Crystal Palace’s caretaker manager. “They’re well-organised. They’ve got bundles of athleticism, good attacking quality all over the park. They seem to come up with solutions whichever way you try to stop them. 

“I think even at 3-1, the boys showed good character, resilience and robustness to keep going,” McCarthy adds. “And we had that chance with Wilfried just before they went up and scored that fourth goal.

“Maybe defensively we didn’t quite deal with their attacking threats well enough today. But they cause everybody problems and make it difficult for most teams they come up against.”