Arsenal 2-1 Crystal Palace: Ramsey’s stoppage time goal seals points

Brede Hangeland’s 35th minute goal gave a scare to the hosts and Arsenal needed every minute to eventually overtake Crystal Palace in a 2-1 opening day win at the Emirates.

Laurent Koscielny scored for Arsenal off an Alexis Sanchez feed to level things before halftime, while Aaron Ramsey’s stoppage time goal game the Gunners all three points.

Ramsey’s goal came after an 89th minute red card for Jason Puncheon.

There was little going for Crystal Palace right off the bat, as the UEFA Champions League side fired out of the gates with tiki-taka like possession. But Palace didn’t exactly look discombobulated, despite that fact that manager Tony Pulis quit earlier this week.

In fact the Palace attitude seemed to be, “Offer us a point now and we’ll walk off the pitch.” Combine that with some final passes from Arsenal that consistently missed the mark, and Palace was okay through a half-hour.

At that point, Arsenal had 76 percent of possession. It mattered not.

Alexis Sanchez made his presence felt with a set piece send to Laurent Koscielny that the defender headed home to level things before half.

Palace shut up shop in the second half, and Arsenal struggled to find a way through a stingy, conservative unit. But Mathieu Debuchy found his shot in the box in the first minute of stoppage time, and Ramsey tapped home the rebound to give Arsenal the win.

-- Nicholas Mendola, ProSoccerTalk.com