arsenal will go into the March international break with a commanding eight-point lead over the Premier League top after brushing aside Crystal Palace Sunday with 4-1 at the Emirates Stadium.
Bukayo Saka scored a classy brace and Gabriel Martinelli and Granit Xhaka were also on target as the Gunners eased to a sixth consecutive top-flight victory in another London derby to bounce back quickly from their shock Europa League final-16 exit at the hands of Sporting Lisbon and taking another important step towards a first title since 2004.
Rivals Manchester City were on FA Cup duty this weekend, reaching a semi-final at Wembley with a 6-0 defeat of Championship leaders Burnley, but now have even more to make up for in the title race when they return to action in April.
Managerless Palace, led by caretaker and Under-21 coach Paddy McCarthy after sacking Arsenal icon Patrick Vieira on Friday, showed early signs it might finally be able to end a dismal 12-game winless run in all competitions in which they failed to achieve a single win in 2023 and fall to just three points above the relegation zone.
However, Wilfried Zaha was only able to rattle the post after a sharp counter-attack and a lucky deflection from Arsenal’s perspective bounced wide of goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale’s back.
Ramsdale denied Odsonne Edouard one-on-one before the offside flag was raised, while Arsenal tested young Palace keeper Joe Whitworth on only his second league start in the absence of Vicente Guaita and Sam Johnstone as captain Martin Odegaard was denied.
The deadlock was broken shortly before the half hour mark, with Ben White and Saka combining very successfully and Martinelli clearing down the latter’s cross, leaving Joel Ward in tow before firing into the bottom corner.
A 13th league goal of the season was just the tonic for Martinelli after his decisive missed penalty against Sporting in the second leg on Thursday.
Arsenal took full control from there and doubled their lead just before half-time as Saka made fantastic contact with White – a surprising omission from this week’s last England side – before coolly sweeping past a helpless Whitworth.
They extended that lead to 3-0 10 minutes into the break as Xhaka was played in by Leandro Trossard to complete another beautifully flowing Arsenal attack.
Palace mounted a brief fightback as Jeffrey Schlupp bundled home from close range on a Michael Olise corner and could have made it 3-2 when Zaha agonizingly dragged a low shot wide of the far post after being hit by Schlupp.
That miss was compounded soon after when Saka received the perfect pass from substitute Kieran Tierney and rammed an unstoppable first strike into the back of the net for 4-1.