Arsenal ease to win as pressure mounts on Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson
Crystal Palace fans unveil a banner in the stands (Zac Goodwin/PA)
Substitute Gabriel Martinelli scored a late double to consign Crystal Palace to a crushing 5-0 defeat at Arsenal which increases the pressure on Roy Hodgson.
Gabriel nodded in the opener for the Gunners, while Eagles keeper Dean Henderson was credited with an own goal and Leandro Trossard grabbed the third on an afternoon that rarely saw Hodgson’s side pose a threat.
Eberechi Eze marked a century of Premier League appearances after he was controversially replaced in the 64th minute of Wednesday’s FA Cup third-round replay loss to Everton and provided the occasional bright spark for the visitors.
Gabriel Martinelli celebrates the first of his two goals (Zac Goodwin/PA)
It was hardly enough to please the away supporters, who raised banners protesting against the direction of their club before Martinelli buried their side moments later.
Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko returned to Mikel Arteta’s starting line-up for the Gunners, who were ahead seconds after the 10-minute mark when Gabriel leveraged the shoulders of Palace defender Chris Richards to rise highest and head home Declan Rice’s corner.
Palace were lucky to avoid falling further behind when a dangerous deflection off midfielder Jefferson Lerma flew towards the top left corner of his own net only to clip the woodwork.
That sigh of relief did little to relieve the overall pressure, Palace rarely finding themselves in the vicinity of the Gunners’ goal until the half hour, when Eze fired a free-kick from a dangerous position straight into a wall of red shirts.
We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can
Read on belfasttelegraph.co.uk
