Head 2 Head: Arsenal v Palace

Palace's Hungary international Gabor Kiraly reckons he has caught the eye of Arsene Wenger in the past and might have had a move to Highbury before arriving at Selhurst Park last summer.
Last night's romp gave him a taste of how little fun it might have been training with Arsenal's impressive goalscorers. Patrick Vieira made him look a fool for the home side's fourth goal when he dummied to shoot, but the keeper could not really be blamed for any of the goals.
He made a couple of decent saves but did not have much hope of casting Jens Lehmann in a bad light in such a one-sided game. Fortunately for Kiraly, the German almost did it for him. He looked low on confidence more than once and only just saved a Gael Clichy backpass on his goal-line after allowing it to roll under his foot in the third minute.

Leaving in summer?

Jose Reyes may have been hoaxed by a radio show into revealing his love for Real Madrid, but there is certainly no doubt that his attacking ability for Arsenal is genuine.
Reyes supplied the low cross for Dennis Bergkamp to turn in for the first goal and slammed in the second minutes later with a powerful angled shot into the corner.
Tottenham target Routledge, like Palace, had little to shout about after the first 30 minutes.
He looked like he would get some joy out of Ashley's Cole's stand-in Gael Clichy early on, but found himself crowded out and starved of possession and was substituted after 64 minutes.

Top of the charts

England's new right-winger played a supporting part in the show put on by the Premiership's most spectacular striker.
Henry was at his arrogant best, scoring with two unstoppable shots from the edge of the area and setting up Patrick Vieira's goal. He also worked hard tracking back.
After having a third goal ruled out for offside, he took time out from the game to confer with a reporter who had seen a replay which showed he may have sprung Palace's trap.
Andy Johnson tried to keep up but was starved of service in front of the watching Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Proof of his potency came in the second half when he won a penalty, scored it and almost squeezed in a second when he stole in between Jens Lehmann and a defender at the near post towards the end.

Tactical masters

The managers may have a lot of mutual respect and admiration but the game was never going to be won on the chalk board.
Iain Dowie knows his players were just nowhere near as good as their counterparts.
The Palace manager looked like he may pull off a coup in the first 30 minutes when his 4-5-1 formation had Dougie Freedman getting forward from left midfield and Arsenal looking jittery.
But then Aki Riihilahti went off and Arsene Wenger's side found their footing. Their superior quality, movement and shooting accuracy meant the system was largely irrelevant.