Arsenal 4-1 Crystal Palace: Saka bags two goals for the Gunners to open 8 pts gaps at top of EPL table

Arsenal beat managerless Crystal Palace 4-1 to keep their hopes of winning the league's crown alive and becoming the first team to win nine London derbies in a single Premier League (PL) season alive.

The Gunners were overwhelming favorites to defeat a Palace team that has not won in 2023, a record that led to the dismissal of manager and Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira on Friday.

The Gunners were eager to rebound from their disappointing UEFA Europa League exit at the hands of Sporting CP on Thursday night. Surprisingly, the first two clear-cut chances belonged to the PL's lowest scorers.

Wilfried Zaha's drive from within the box bounced against the left post, and Odsonne Edouard's one-on-one attempt was stopped by Aaron Ramsdale.

Yet Mikel Arteta's team isn't at the top of the league for nothing, and after a sluggish start, they picked up the pace and took control of the game.

Gabriel Martinelli first received a cross from Bukayo Saka that he controlled before switching to his left foot and hitting past Joseph Whitworth and into the corner.

The vivacious Saka then transformed from a supplier to a scorer as HT drew near when he grabbed Ben White's through-ball and fired past Whitworth to give the hosts a comfortable lead at the half.

Given that Arsenal had only lost one of their previous 16 home games, the Eagles knew it would be difficult to get back into the game.

However, things took a turn for the worse 10 minutes after the break when Granit Xhaka played a one-two with Leandro Trossard and nipped in front of Joel Ward to direct the ball home from close range. The Ghanaian was able to deflect the ball home from a few yards out as Palace persisted in their battle, though, and they quickly got a goal back when the ball fell at the foot of Jeffrey Schlupp from a corner.

But, any thoughts of an Eagles comeback were dashed with little over 15 minutes left when Saka scored his second goal of the game to put Arsenal eight points ahead at the top despite playing one more game than Manchester City. Palace remained in 12th place.