Mateta punishes Arsenal to leave Liverpool within one point of title
Crystal Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta, left, celebrates with teammates after scoring his side's second goal. Pic: Ian Walton/AP
Liverpool can now look forward to celebrating their 20th league title at a packed Anfield on Sunday - provided they get a result - after this dramatic draw delayed their certain coronation for a few days.
A win or draw against Tottenham on Sunday afternoon will now seal the deal for Arne Slot and his Liverpool leaders, who will relish the prospect of doing the deed in style in front of their own fans rather than watching it on TV on Wednesday night.
That will not bother Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.
His job was to cement second place in the Premier League while avoiding any further injuries ahead of next week’s Champions League semi-final visit of Paris Saint-Germain.
Job done – although they would rather be nine and not six points clear of third-placed Manchester City.
Victory had looked theirs thanks to first half goals from Jakub Kiwior and Leandro Trossard.
Oliver Glasner’s Palace, who levelled through an Eberechi Eze wonder goal and an even better late strike from Jean-Philippe Mateta, also seemed to succeed in his mission to emerge unscathed and finely tuned going into their Saturday Wembley FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa.
The evening could not have started much better for Arteta and Arsenal as they strived for a seventh successive victory against their determined London rivals from south of the river.
Kiwior headed his side in front with just over two minutes gone.
Gabriel Martinelli was fouled to earn a free kick wide on the left, and captain Martin Odegaard took control to curl in a tantalising cross to around the penalty spot. The Palace defence was blocked and out of position as Kiwior leapt unmarked to plant the ball into Dean Henderson’s top right-hand corner off the meat of his forehead.
The Polish defender has been a revelation since coming in for the injured Gabriel. He is yet to be on a losing side in his seven appearances this month.
Arsenal have conceded only six times in that period too – including home and away European ties with Real Madrid - and the player they were open to selling in the summer has been as important as any other in their recent run.
Palace struck back for the first time on 27 minutes, just as Arsenal seemed to be cruising to victory.
Adam Wharton, a player Arteta is said to covet, pinged a corner to the edge of the penalty area where Eze struck a bouncing right-foot volley through a crowd of players and into the left-hand corner of David Raya’s goal.
Arsenal were stunned, dazed and as vulnerable as they have looked all season as Palace went confidently and immediately in search of a second.
Eze controlled a cute through ball to find former Arsenal man Eddie Nketiah six yards out, with his back to goal. The England striker turned, shot and seemed certain to score only for Kiwior to extend a leg and block the ball to safety.
Palace looked the better side for a spell – they had nine first-half shots - and their five-man defence formed a seemingly impregnable forest of dense defensive legs.
That all changed with 42 minutes on the clock when Jurrien Timber fed in a low ball to Trossard, who jinked his way into space and drilled in a skimming left-foot effort for his eighth goal of the season.
Arsenal remained slightly the better side in the second half and had a few half-chances to increase their lead before Palace were guilty of squandering a great chance to level again.
Like Arsenal, they have scored 16 Premier League goals from set pieces this season and so nearly made it 17 when substitute Ismaila Sarr failed to head on from two yards after a 67th minute corner was worked to him in front of goal.
The packed Palace corner by the goal broke into a chorus of 'Ke sera sera – whatever will be will be - we’re going to Wem-ber-ley'.
Arsenal man of the moment Gabriel Martinelli then looked to have put the game beyond reach with a close-range tap-in. An unduly lengthy VAR check decided Timber had passed his way from beyond the byline, even though a post was obscuring the view of the camera.
There was no disputing Mateta’s 83rd-minute equaliser.
William Saliba blundered to concede possession and his fellow Frenchman seized the chance to drive a chip over Raya from a full 20 yards out.
Raya 6, Timber 7, Saliba 6, Kiwior 7, Lewis-Skelly 7 (Tierney 86), Rice 6, Partey 6, Odegaard 6 (Nwaneri 86), Sterling 5 (Saka 60), Trossard 7, Martinelli 7.
Neto, Zinchenko, Butler-Oyedeji, Gower, Henry-Francis, Kabia.
Henderson 6, Munoz 7, Richards 6, Lacroix 6, Guehi 6, Mitchell 6, Wharton 7 (Hughes 63), Kamada 6, Devenny 6 (Esse 80), Eze 7, Nketiah 7.
Turner, Ward, Franca, Clyne, Kporha.
Michael Salisbury 6
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