Eberechi Eze scores winner against former club Palace to boost Arsenal lead

Eberechi Eze scored against his old club as Arsenal recorded a 1-0 win against Crystal Palace at the Emirates to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League.

Eze fired home from another Arsenal set-piece with a sumptuous half-volley six minutes prior to the interval before Gabriel struck the crossbar in the second half as Arsenal saw out their seventh consecutive victory.

Palace failed to muster a single shot on target against an Arsenal side which has now conceded just three times across 13 matches in all competitions so far. Arsenal’s clean sheet here was their fifth in succession.

It was a far from a spectacular performance from Mikel Arteta’s men, but the triumph takes them four points clear of second-placed Bournemouth in the table, and six ahead of Manchester City following their 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa.

Defending champions Liverpool are a further point off the championship pace.

Arsenal scored four times in 14 electric second-half minutes as they rain riot against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League earlier this week. But on Sunday, they required 33 minutes to register their first shot.

Fresh from his quickfire double against Atletico, Viktor Gyokeres did well to bounce off Maxence Lacroix and hold the ball up before bringing Declan Rice into play. Rice found Leandro Trossard but the Belgian’s first touch allowed the ball to get stuck under his feet and his subsequent shot was straight at the Palace stopper.

Speaking prior to Sunday’s match, Arteta revealed he hatched his masterplan to transform Arsenal into set-piece kings a decade ago.

On Tuesday night, Arsenal became the first team across Europe’s top five leagues to register 10 goals from free-kicks this season, and on the 39th minute that became