Arsenal vs Crystal Palace (away)

Updated: Aug 4, 2023

Hi everyone

Hope your all well

On Sunday 21st April 2019 I went to my second Palace away game which was against Arsenal. I went with my mum and it was a very good day. We didn’t have to drive that far as it was only in North London but due to traffic it took us about 2 hours to get there. In England we have had some hot weather over the past week, so it was a nice day to go to a football game. We were given a parking space but due to the road being closed an hour before the game and 2 hours after the game we decided to park on the road instead, so we could leave earlier. But there is an option to park nearer the ground so you don’t have to walk far.

When we arrived we had to walk up to the Emirates Stadium with all the Arsenal fans 😬. Once we got in we had to walk through the bar full of fans to get to our seats, this was a slight problem because we had to ask people to move. Our seats had a good view of the pitch, we were behind all the fans so I felt more in the crowd it was a nice experience. Palace's away record has been a lot better then there home can this continue today....

The game started at 4pm and Palace started it off. Throughout the whole match the palace fans were signing to get behind their team. In the first few minutes both teams had chances, but neither were able to score. Until the 17th minute when Palace were awarded a free kick after a foul on Benteke, Milivojevic made a fantastic delivery into the box to meet Benteke on the back post who is unmarked and able to bury the ball into the net. This was an amazing feeling for all palace fans but more importantly Benteke himself as he hadn’t scored this season until then. We were missing both of our first pick Centre backs Tomkins and Sakho due to injury, so we had to bring Kelly and Dann in but they did very well in the first half of the game. Arsenal had a few chances but luckily none went in . There was a penalty appeal from Arsenal in the 38th minute after Wan-Bissaka had 'apparently' blocked the ball with his arm. Palace had some big opportunity’s in the final minutes of half time but none were taken. It didn’t take arsenal long to change the score line after half time, within 3 minutes it was 1-1. This gave Arsenal a bit of energy but was it enough? Nothing really happened until the 61st minute when another goal came, this time it was for palace, Arsenal’s defence was poor which gave Benteke the opportunity to flick the ball onto Zaha who was able to get round Mustafi and net the ball once again, making it 2-1 to palace. Within 8 minutes palace was able to score another one; this time it came from a corner, it was whipped in and McArthur was once again unmarked and able to head it into the back of the net, was this dream becoming reality for all palace fans. In the 77th minute Aubameyang had a moment of greatness and a goal came for Arsenal, was the comeback on? Palaces lineup was a bit different this week but they definitely played well. In the 79th minute regular Andros Townsend was bought on in replace of Max Meyer who I thought had a good game. In the final minutes of the game Guaita had to make a brilliant save to deny Arsenal the point. There was 5 minutes added on and Arsenal had found the energy they needed, every Palace fans heart was racing waiting to hear the final whistle. When the ref blew the whistle the away end erupted, what a result for us!!! While walking to the car there was loads of Palace fans showing their happiness by singing Palace chants, which annoyed some Arsenal fans but it was definitely worth it. Palace had ended Arsenal’s run of 10 consecutive home wins.

On the way home I was buzzing with the result as it is up there with our win over Manchester City away, I am very happy I was able to go.