Arsenal 4-1 Crystal Palace: 5 talking points

4) Underrated Monreal makes the difference

Monreal celebrates scoring the opener

Nacho Monreal today returned to the Arsenal starting line-up after missing the last four games through injury and unsurprisingly, the Spaniard came up with the goods for the Gunners.

Defensively, the left-back offered some more reassurance than they have recently had, playing young Ainsley Maitland-Niles out of position there - as well as a more attack-minded figure in Sead Kolasinac.

However, he more importantly helped the hosts get off to a much-needed fast start with a goal and two assists. Recently they have struggled to score many but the fullback offered width in a rather narrow formation, while taking full advantage of the fact that Wilfried Zaha was reluctant to track back.

He trudged off down the tunnel late in the first-half after signalling for a substitution, which Arsenal fans will be hoping was purely a precautionary measure after sustaining a knock he could not run off.

However, his job was already done by this point. Arsenal had a four-goal cushion and he was instrumental in three of their goals. In his last nine matches, Arsenal had kept five clean sheets. Without him in their last four Premier League fixtures, they have failed to keep any and conceded two in three of those too.

Monreal is an important figure and has been for a long time now - it's time for football fans to realise just how good the Spaniard is.