Holding his own: Stand-in man delivers for Arsenal 

UP FOR IT: Crystal Palace's Odsonne Edouard (left) and Arsenal's Rob Holding. Pic: John Walton/PA Wire.

Arsenal passed the Rob Holding test with flying colours: is there any reason why the Gunners cannot now go ahead and book that open-topped bus and set a date for a first Premier League title parade in 19 years?

This was a clash of two London sides in desperate need of bouncing back, albeit from markedly differing brands of strife. Arsenal's was a Europa League exit at the hands of Sporting Lisbon on Thursday; Palace's the winless run that precipitated the removal of Patrick Vieira as manager a few hours later, on St Patrick's Day of all days.

Arsenal's penalty shoot-out loss to the Portuguese, though disappointing, did nothing but free up Thursdays to concentrate on the league but also came at a cost as William Saliba, the centre-back, was hurt early on. That meant Holding, seven seasons a Gunner but a regular in only one of them, had to be handed a first Premier League start of the campaign.

It was also the second time he had been picked for a league game since May last year when his disastrous performance at Tottenham, which saw him sent off before half-time in a 3-0 defeat, allowed Arsenal's neighbours to go on and steal the final Champions League place from under their noses.

Much has happened since then of course - and you can be sure Gunners will have loved every second of Antonio Conte's rant on the subject of his under-achieving players and parsimonious employers - but little has involved Holding.

The 27-year-old had been reduced to cup starts and the occasional substitute stint in the league, ostensibly to waste time at the end. Cometh the hour, cometh the man however and Holding, although given a hard time by Wilfried Zaha, thoroughly deserved his win bonus.

Plenty of sides beat Palace of course, or at least don't lose to them as the Eagles extended a win-less run dating back to New Year's Eve.

Arsenal fans sang Patrick Vieira's name after each goal their side scored after the Invincible joined Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard on the list of Premier League legends as players who are finding management at the highest level in England far trickier.

The Frenchman's ejection, while understandable based purely on recent results, seems more and more of a knee-jerk reaction the more you look at it though.

Palace fans expecting Plan B were confronted with former skipper Paddy McCarthy elevated from the Under-21s to take temporary charge and suggestions that Roy Hodgson, the man Vieira replaced in the hope more exciting football would follow, might be tempted to return for the rest of the season.

Again, bringing back the former England manager makes no sense when analysed under the microscope. Hodgson is a defence tightener but that isn't the problem at Palace, or hadn't been until McCarthy decided to swap Nathaniel Clyne for the woeful Joel Ward. 

It's goals Vieira couldn't coax from his squad and Hodgson failed to spark Watford into life this time last season in a similar position. For the record, the Hornets announced their current manager 17 minutes after revealing they had sacked the previous one; all Palace fans have been given so far is some 'tough to sack such a nice guy' chat about Vieira from Steve Parish.

Who clearly panicked. Just look at Palace's remaining fixtures - Leeds, Southampton, Everton, Wolves, West Ham, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest all to play. 

They could have drawn the lot of those 0-0 under Vieira, whose supposedly inferior tactics earned points against Manchester United, Liverpool, Newcastle and Brighton in recent weeks. They also almost held Manchester City to a goal-less draw.

Palace panicked, pure and simple, and look set to pay the price. Arteta and Co kept their nerve, including when it came to giving the ever-patient Holding the nod, and are on course to reap the biggest reward of them all.