It's not what you've got, it's what you do with it

Watching some of Crystal Palace 3 Arse-nil the other evening and catching some of Jamie Carragher's analysis after the game was interesting, but there was a pair of statistics that particularly caught my eye: possession - Palace 28% Arsenil 72%; touches in opposition penalty area Palace 32, Arsenil 30. Wow. Palace had more touches in their opponents box with 40% less of the ball. Which just goes to show that it's what you do with it that counts.

Carra was scathing - indeed almost despairing - about Arsenil's defending. He showed clips of Bellerin and Mustafi making very weak challenges on Benteke, who Wenger noted later "was up for it today". Benteke has a reputation for only being up for it on some days, but you really shouldn't rely on your opponents feeling as if they can't be Arsed. Carra also noted that, when you are faced with a strong, particularly if large, centre forward, it's essential for the midfielders to protect their centre backs by making it hard for the opposing team to hit the target man on his head, chest or on the deck by positioning themselves in between the opposing centre forward and the ball and challenging strongly. He said this was stuff that "any schoolboy knows". Maybe they do now, but I certainly learned it quickly when I started playing centre back in my mid 20s in the mid 70s. I can vividly remember screaming at my midfielders to "get in front" of the centre forward at restarts - throw ins, corners and when the opposing goalkeeper was kicking long, as led to Palace's first goal this week. If he was a gorilla compared with my rather slim line figure for a centre back, it's then even more important to challenge strongly and be ready to pick up the second ball. Like Carra I thought everybody who plays football knew that. But not Wenger, who subscribes to the Barcelona school of thought that, if we are better than our opponents and play the game we want, we will always win. Except even Barcelona don't believe that.

No doubt I'll have to eat my words, but I'm looking forward to the 6th place decider on the last day of the Premier League season: Arsenal v Everton at the Emirates. Everton don't have a good record there, but this is a team there for the taking. Mind, their best player, Alexis Sanchez, who looked on Monday as if he couldn't wait to get away, will probably want to sign off in style before moving in the summer, so we'd better be awake.