Arsenal celebrated fielding their first-ever all-foreign squad by thrashing relegation-threatened Crystal Palace 5-1 in London on Monday.
Thierry Henry scored twice to record a memorable 200th Premiership appearance for the Gunners. The Frenchman was joined on the score sheet by Dutchman Dennis Bergkamp, Spaniard Jose-Antonio Reyes and another Frenchman, Patrick Vieira.
Palace’s leading scorer Andy Johnson scored a penalty for the visitors.
Victory still leaves the Premiership champions a distant 11 points adrift of leaders Chelsea in third place, while Palace stay two points above the relegation zone.
The thrashing will have done nothing to boost their confidence ahead of hosting both Chelsea and second-placed Manchester United in the coming weeks.
Henry said he should have had a hat-trick, having one ruled out for offside.
”I am convinced it should have been a hat-trick,” said Henry, who has bounced back with three goals in two matches, having previously gone seven matches without a goal.
”However, the match tonight was to see if we could be consistent and I think after taking 10 minutes to settle, we played well, had great movement and scored some great goals.”
Bergkamp beat Gabor Kiraly in the 32nd minute — just after the tough-tackling Finnish midfielder Aki Riihahti had gone off injured with a calf-muscle ailment — as Reyes slipped across a pass and Bergkamp was on hand to slide it home for his third goal in successive Premiership home matches.
Palace striker Dougie Freedman missed a sitter two minutes later by seizing on a backheader by Johnson and, totally unmarked, the former Scotland international sliced his shot badly wide.
His miss was laid bare as, a minute later, Reyes shot past Kiraly into the far corner — for his first goal in 14 matches and a few days after he was tricked into revealing he would like to move to Real Madrid — after a Palace defender had only been able to clear it to him outside the area.
Kiraly saved Palace from going even further behind in the 38th minute as visiting defender Gonzalo Sorondo’s header from Bergkamp’s cross was tipped over the bar. Seconds later, the Hungarian saved them again as his legs turned away a Henry close-range effort for another corner.
However, from the ensuing corner Henry fired in a thunderbolt of an effort from the edge of the penalty area which Kiraly could do nothing about as it flashed into the top left-hand corner for his 22nd goal of the season.
Freedman had another golden chance three minutes into the second half to atone at least for his earlier miss, but one on one with Lehmann he shot wide.
The Gunners showed no mercy as a beautiful move involving Bergkamp and Henry saw the Frenchman find Vieira in the box. With Kiraly sliding in desperately thinking his defender would have got it back to him, the Arsenal captain sidestepped him and tapped it into the net.
Two minutes later and it could have been 5-0, but Bergkamp’s shot after Henry found him free in the box shaved the right-hand post.
Johnson reduced the deficit after he was brought down in the box by Vieira and calmly sent Lehmann the wrong way for his 16th of the season, making him Palace’s record scoring Premiership player in a single.
Normal service was resumed with Robert Pires hitting the woodwork and then Henry added his second in the 77th minute with a curling effort from inside the box after being found by Bergkamp. — Sapa-AFP