ARSENAL STARTS THEIR PREMIER LEAGUE CAMPAIGN WITH A WIN

Aaron Ramsey scored in the last minute at Emirates Stadium to give Arsenal a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace.

 Laurent Koscielny scored the equaliser for Arsenal

Managerless Palace looked set for a point but had forward Jason Puncheon sent off for a second offence in the 89th minute before Ramsey pounced.

Palace, under the caretaker guidance of Keith Millen following Tony Pulis’ shock departure, took the lead in an opening weekend derby date in north London through Brede Hangeland, but were pegged back before the interval by Laurent Koscielny.

Aaron Ramsey scored the winner for Arsenal at the last minute of the game

Millen’s side were then reduced to 10 men in the closing stages as Jason Puncheon was shown a second yellow card, and Arsenal made their numerical advantage count almost immediately as they pounced in stoppage-time. 

The opening two goals came from set-pieces, with defensive errors cancelling each other out.

On 35 minutes, from a Puncheon corner, Hangeland was allowed to run away from Alexis Sanchez and Koscielny and glance past Wojciech Szczesny at the near post.

Then, on the stroke of half-time, Hangeland returned the favour as he failed to pick up a run from Koscielny and was left to watch on helplessly as the Frenchman nodded a Sanchez free-kick into the bottom corner.

Palace dug in from that point, but suffered a late blow as Puncheon slid in to catch Nacho Monreal on the ankle and was given his marching orders.

Arsenal, who had been far from their free-flowing best, seized their opportunity in the dying seconds as Ramsey bundled home from close-range after an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain cross had caused confusion inside the box and Mathieu Debuchy had seen an effort parried by Julian Speroni.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said: "They made it very difficult, they defended very well and took their first opportunity. After that they made it very tight, they were physically very strong and we needed to keep going. Our desire got us through.

"If you look at the results today, no home team won, we were the only one so it shows in the first game it is not easy to win.

"The Champions League qualifier is massive game for us next week against Besiktas, we have a short time to recover. Normally the German players would not play in that game. We will have to see on Sunday but only in case of emergency."

Crystal Palace caretaker manager Keith Millen said: "I'm proud of the players, without a doubt. I'm proud of the performance and disappointed not to have got something out of the game.

"That's the only disappointment really today, the two goals and the timing of the goals. But, I think when you think what the players have been through the last couple of days, you're never quite sure how they're going to respond to Tony (Pulis) leaving.

"I think you can see by their performance, their togetherness, that they were going to work hard for each other and the club,"