Nick Ames was at Selhurst Park tonight. Here’s his report! Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night.

Mikel Arteta speaks. “I love to win like this … the way we played in the first half against a team that is so difficult … we dominated but conceded nothing … even with ten men we didn’t concede … I am so happy the team responded in a positive way to win the game … it shows how much we want it.”

As for how difficult it will be for referees to be consistent over the subject of time-wasting? “That is something they will have to do … it is going to be difficult for us … we will have to play with ten or maybe nine or eight, depending on where we put the standard … we can maybe play eight against eight, it will be very entertaining.”

As dry as a very large glass of Albariño.

Roy Hodgson’s take. “We gave a very good account of ourselves … we worked very hard … when we had a chance to get into the ascendency when they went down to ten men we took that opportunity … we paid the price for the quick free kick … the player who was going to defend that space was blocked off but the referee and VAR thought differently … we need to get more help in forward areas … but we’re working on that … rules and ideas are thrust upon us … we have to learn to live with them … I can understand why Arsenal might be unhappy about the two yellow cards, I’m sure I would be myself.”

Declan Rice speaks to Sky. “When you look up at the clock with 20 minutes to go and you’re down to ten men against this young, athletic Crystal Palace side, you know it’s going to be tough … these are the places you want to come if you want to win the Premier League, if you want to be up there at the end of the season … you’ve got to show character and pluck out three points I thought we deserved in the end.”

Peter Oh writes: “Re: 90 min +4. Havertz, answering his off-the-ball critics?”

This is how the Premier League table looks after the second weekend of matches.

A dogged three points for Arsenal, the sort of win you occasionally need to grind out if you’re to win championships. They were really made to work for it. They’d been the better team in the first half without finding the final touch: Eddie Nketiah hit the post then sent a lob over the bar with only the keeper to beat. Early in the second, some quick thinking at a free kick by Gabriel Martinelli and Nketiah earned a penalty that Martin Odegaard converted. Takehiro Tomiyasu was ridiculously sent off for taking eight seconds of a throw in, then lightly grabbing Jordan Ayew’s shirt. Thomas Partey clipped Eberechi Eze in the box, but not in a manner that interested either the referee or VAR officials. So both teams have their grievances, but Arsenal shaded it on the balance of play … though such was Palace’s domination during the last knockings, a draw wouldn’t have been an outrageous result either. Mikel Arteta celebrates with both fists raised in the air, while Roy Hodgson smiles ruefully but sportingly.

Three hard-earned points for Arsenal!

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90 min +7: Rak-Sakyi digs out a fine cross from a very tight spot out on the right. But this time Ramsdale comes out to claim brilliantly. That’ll surely do it.

90 min +6: Mitchell crosses low from the left. Saliba slashes it out of the six-yard box. Arsenal nearly there.

90 min +5: Some head tennis in the Arsenal box. Ramsdale comes to claim. He flaps. The ball drops to Mitchell, who blazes over from a tight angle on the left. It wasn’t the best goalkeeping. Then again, he didn’t give up the easiest chance.

90 min +4: Havertz is booked for kicking away a dead ball.

90 min +3: Eze curls in from the left. Too long. The cross floats out harmlessly for a goal kick.

90 min +2: Arsenal keep Palace pinned back in their own half.

90 min +1: Doucoure is booked for a graceless slide on Havertz.

90 min: There will be seven additional minutes.

89 min: Saka and Odegaard are replaced by Kiwior and Zinchenko.

87 min: Arsenal can’t get out of their penalty area. Palace are swinging the ball around this way and that. Rak-Sakyi and Ayew take turns to flash speculative shots goalwards. Both are blocked and cleared.

86 min: Mitchell curls in a sensational ball from the left. White misses it. Edouard is free, eight yards out! But he can only eyebrow a weak header miles wide right. Palace have had 80 percent of possession during the last 15 minutes.

85 min: Mitchell drops a shoulder and very nearly gets away from Partey down the left. Partey toe-pokes out for a corner, just as Mitchell was making good for the box. The corner’s sent long to Edouard, who busies himself down the inside-right channel but can’t fashion an opportunity to shoot.

83 min: Rak-Sakyi comes on for Ward.

81 min: Seems Tomiyasu really took one for the team. He was booked over a throw that took 23 seconds … though he only had hold of the ball for eight of them himself. He’d taken possession of it from Havertz, who had been holding it for 15 seconds. Factor in the light tug on Ayew, and it’s one of the stranger red cards of our time.

79 min: Nketiah is fine, but he’s replaced by Jorginho anyway. Arsenal looking to keep hold of what they’ve got.

78 min: Palace pass and probe but there’s no way into the Arsenal box. Eventually Andersen competes for a ball he shouldn’t and high-kicks Nketiah in the chest. Free kick. Pressure off.

76 min: Both sides have something to feel aggrieved out now: the soft dismissal of Tomiyasu, and the penalty for Palace that could have been but wasn’t. Fortunately Twitter is banjaxed these days, so all the post-match rows will be that little bit easier to ignore. Good old Elon!

74 min: Ahamada comes on for Schlupp.

73 min: VAR takes a look at the penalty shout, though. There was contact between Eze and Partey’s leg, but not enough for the VAR to overturn the on-field decision it would seem. No doubt this will be mentioned after the match. Nobody knows anything.

72 min: Eze dribbles gracefully into the box from the left. He nips between Partey and Rice and goes over the former’s leg. No penalty, according to the referee. Both Partey and Odegaard ask for Eze to be yellow-carded, but there’s no punishment for that, either.

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70 min: A free kick for Palace as Havertz really gets a handful of Ayew’s shirt. No booking this time, strangely. Before it can be taken, Gabriel comes on for a visibly annoyed Martinelli. Then the free kick, whipped in from the right, finds Ayew, who bobbles a shot straight at Ramsdale.

68 min: That was the lightest of tugs, but VAR can’t get involved with a yellow-card decision. It highlights the idiocy of Tomiyasu picking up a yellow card for time-wasting over a throw with over 30 minutes still to play.