I know it is the EFL cup. I know it’s a fixture pile-up in January. And yeah, I know that we have bigger fish to fry in other competitions. But you can’t say that when it went to penalties, and those players responded that they didn’t want this. They all do.

And let’s be honest, so do we, with some provisios, a couple of quid pro quos, that we all want in place. Like Rule Number One: You can’t kill anybody in the squad. I.e. in January, every single first-teamer is going to need to be used. And used a lot. We can’t have any players just not seeing minutes.

Which leads me to segue nicely into the starting XI, which saw a relatively strong team put out and no sign of Ethan Nwaneri. I was in a Greek taverna just off the Seven Sisters Road as we talked about it beforehand, and the discussion was on his future, the second the team line-up was read out. Because if you can’t play Nwaneri in a game like this one, when is he going to find minutes? Portsmouth away in the FA Cup and that’s it? I know Arteta needs to play the team he thinks can win the game, which is why I wasn’t surprised to see Timber in at right back ahead of Marli Salmon, but Ethan has established himself last season as a good player and one that really we should be trying to nurture, so I’m just not sure the message it sends out and I’d certainly give a penny for his thoughts and that of his agent and family right now. They’re probably wondering if that new contract signed in the summer was the right thing to do.

And hey, I get it, he’s 18 and he has no right to demand game time, but this feels a little like a blocked pathway to me at the moment, and I worry that a very talented footballer might be forced to look elsewhere unless he’s given some kind of sniff of the first team at some stage.

But anyway, that’s merely a side note in a game in which Arsenal played – I thought – really well, actually. As I mentioned, Arteta went strong and decided Timber and Saliba needed to pay at the back, with Norgaard in that midfield anchor role, either side of Merion and Eze. Madueke and Martinelli flanked Jesus, and Arsenal were spun around from shooting the end we normally did. And it felt like the players suddenly thought it was the second half of a game, because there was no slow buildup in play. We were creating chances and dominating Palace, and Madueke was put in through on goal within the first five minutes, although his finish was pretty pants, if truth be told. But that didn’t deter him, Gabriel Jesus or Martinelli, who had his fullback on toast all through the first half (it was therefore no surprise that the right back didn’t see the second half and was hooked for Clyne).

Unfortunately for our attack, though, they came across a ‘keeper determined to make a name for himself, which is just as well because I’d never heard of Benitez before a ball was kicked yesterday. But he made a number of pretty impressive saves throughout, including two from Gabby Jesus, who lasted 86 minutes yesterday, and I think he must definitely be in contention for a start in one of our upcoming Premier League games now. He created chances, he linked play, and he was part of an attack that basically did everything other than the final piece of the puzzle and score – something none managed in the end, with yet another own goal getting us one up. And it came from yet another set piece, which is pleasing, but as Arteta remarked in his post-match presser, we really should have been three or four up by the closing stages of this game. The stats say Crystal Palace managed eight shots and two on target, but the only one I remember on target was Guehi’s goal on 95 minutes. Arsenal had absolutely dominated and in the expected goals tally we were almost at four xG (3.84) which is the sort of number you get when a team has had a drubbing, not a 1-1 draw as it finished.

And that has to be a concern for Arteta, because it’s starting to feel like a pattern. Everton away felt like a classically controlled 2-0 or 3-0 away win, yet it was nervy. Wolves scored with pretty much their only effort just over a week ago, and these late goals are starting to feel like a trend to me. That’s Sunderland, Villa, Wolves and Palace who have all bagged in 90+ minutes against us now. Arsenal and Arteta need to put games to bed more often like the Brentford games, yet we’re simply not doing it. Something has to change there and I’m not sure what it is. More shooting practice? More focus on opening up low-block teams with quicker movement of the ball? Certainly no more long thorw-ins, please, because we’re crap at them and haven’t scorfed all season from one.

But ultimately, we have to finish on a positive note, because kudos to Kepa who gets his moment in this game with his penalty save, after a string of scored penalties from all of the previous takers before Lacroix missed. And you can’t argue that Arsenal didn’t deserve to go through. We dominated almost all aspects of this game against a Palace side that was surprisingly at full-strength, showing that Glasner clearly felt an opportunity for a bloodied nose of one of the big players in this competition. It didn’t happen and as a result we now have a two-legged match up against the morally bankrupt football club that is Chelsea in January. Let’s hope we have ourselves a positive outcome from that because if we do, it’ll be an early date with Wembley and I think all of us wouldn’t mind a bit of that in March.

Right, I’ll call it quits for today. Happy Christmas Eve if you celebrate and if not, hope you have a grand ol’ day anyway.

Catch you all tomorrow.