London – Crystal Palace and Arsenal drew 1-1 in the English Premier League (EPL) on Saturday after the latter’s captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, was sent off.
Aubameyang had fired the visitors ahead, but he was sent off after Jordan Ayew scored a fortuitous equaliser for the home side.
The Gabonese struck in the 12th minute, steering a low shot past goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.
That was after he was put through by Alexandre Lacazette with Arsenal dominating an uneventful first half at Selhurst Park.
Ayew levelled in the 54th minute with a heavily-deflected shot which left goalkeeper Bernd Leno stranded.
The shot came off defender David Luiz as the visitors failed to clear a tame-looking low cross from the right.
Aubameyang was shown a straight red card midway through the second half after a VAR check.
The booking and subsequent sending-off followed a rash tackle on Max Meyer which forced the Crystal Palace forward to limp off injured.
Crystal Palace, who gained the upper hand in the closing stages with their numerical advantage, missed their best chance to grab a winner.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos had to clear a James Tomkins header off the line in the 78th minute.
They were let off the hook three minutes later at the other end as Guaita tipped Nicolas Pepe’s fierce low shot onto the post and then smothered Lacazette’s close-range follow-up.
(Reuters/NAN)
