Arsenal toast the rebirth of Jesus as Christmas approaches and Eagles hopes are dashed

Picture by YTJourno

Carabao Cup Quarter-Final

Arsenal (0) 3 Jesus 54, 73, 81

Crystal Palace (1) 2 Mateta 3, Nketiah 85

Well it is nearly Christmas Day. If not now for Jesus, when?

Arsenal flirted with a night of calamity by fielding a frankly insulting starting XI shorn of their major players and Palace looked in prime mood to make them pay, taking an early lead they held into the interval.

But then came the changes which blew Oliver Glasner's team apart - Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka coming on to supply the ammunition for Jesus to rediscover his prowess in front of goal with a hat-trick.

The Brazilian's only other goal this season came at Preston in an earlier round.

Mikel Arteta put out the sort of League Cup line-up Arsene Wenger would have approved of. For the Eagles it must have served as an added incentive when they saw the team sheets drop.

Palace may have been without an injured Adam Wharton and a suspended Daniel Munoz, but theirs was a line-up that was first-team heavy and full of ambition. Eberechi Eze shrugged off a swollen ankle to play.

We had barely got under way when a long clearance from Dean Henderson sailed over everyone for Jean-Philippe Mateta to outmuscle a hopelessly inadequate Jakub Kiwior before sliding a left foot shot past David Raya's left hand into the bottom corner.

It wasn't just Arsenal's makeshift back four dithering either. Jesus - afforded a rare start - allowed Ismaila Sarr to dispossess him 40 yards out and run forward unopposed to fire a low shot at Raya.

Arsenal's response was a blaze over the bar from Leandro Trossard and a dipping free-kick from Raheem Sterling that Henderson had to claw away from the top corner.

The folly of that Gunners starting line-up was obvious and two changes were made at the interval, with Odegaard and William Saliba on for Ethan Nwaneri and Thomas Partey.

Palace also took no chances with teenager Caleb Kporpha, who had picked up a booking for a foul on Trossard on his Eagles debut. Nathaniel Clyne replaced him at half-time.

Arsenal found some urgency and upped the tempo at last and Kieran Tierney's overlapping run ended with a cross to the far post Sterling should have put away. He hit a timid shot into Henderson, then hit the rebound onto the crossbar.

The Eagles were finally looking a bit rattled. Mikel Merino's low shot did not miss by much. Then Jesus finally found his shooting boots, scooping the ball expertly over the onrushing Henderson after being picked out by a fine Odegaard pass in the box and riding a tackle to get into space.

The mood swing was now in full flight, with Jesus turning onto a clever ball from Trossard and forcing Henderson into another save with a close-range prod.

Eddie Nketiah came on for Matata - receiving appreciative applause from home fans in the process - and Eze departed as Glasner tried to stem the Gunners' momentum.

Eze had tried his luck with an audacious free-kick from halfway but had not have been fully fit.

With no extra-time in this competition now, Arteta went for broke and sent Saka on for the final 20 minutes in place of the underwhelming Sterling, who continues to look like a lost soul searching for a home.

It was all set up for Saka to lay on a telling pass and Jesus buried it. He looked on the cusp of being ahead of his marker and close to offside but there is no VAR in the Carabao Cup at this stage to bail Palace out.

Soon after, Jesus had his hat-trick when Odegaard's long pass set the striker free and he once again made no mistake, blasting home.

Palace were not quite done, and Nketiah - scorer of a fair few Carabao Cup goals for the Gunners in his time at the Emirates - rose high to head beautifully from a Clyne cross with five minutes left.

But the narrative was all about that Arsenal escape. With a little help from the bench and their beautifully named December striker.

Gunners: (4-3-3) Raya - Timber, Kiwior (Gabriel 87), Partey (Saliba h/t), Tierney (Lewis-Skelly 70) - Nwaneri (Odegaard h/t), Jorginho, Merino - Trossard, Jesus, Sterling (Saka 70)

Eagles: (3-4-2-1) Henderson - Chalobah, Lacroix, Guehi - Kporpha (Clyne h/t), Lerma, Hughes (Devenney 80), Mitchell (SChlupp 87) - Sarr, Eze (Kamada 59) - Mateta (Nketiah 59)

Attendance: 60,176