LONDON: Crystal Palace dealt a derby blow to Arsenal’s top four hopes by defeating the Gunners by a decisive 3-0 in South London.

A further blow for Arsenal was a knee injury suffered by defender Kieran Tierney while away with Scotland.

Arsenal needed only a draw against Palace to edge ahead of north London neighbours Tottenham and back into the Champions League slots but they were comprehensively outplayed.

Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jordan Ayew put the Eagles in control after 24 minutes and Wilfried Zaha’s second-half penalty added deserved gloss to the score for the hosts, who extended their unbeaten run to seven matches in all competitions and moved up to ninth in the table.

Zaha killed off Arsenal’s hopes after the Ivory Coast attacker dribbled past Gabriel and ran at Ben White before Martin Odegaard clipped his ankle in the area.

Referee Paul Tierney took a couple of seconds but pointed to the penalty spot and Zaha did the rest to fire home his 11th goal of the season.

Arsenal, too late, raised some late spirit but Marc Guehi – fresh from his England debut – blocked on the line an effort from Emile Smith Rowe before Eddie Nketiah curled an effort against the posts.

Manager Mikel Arteta confirmed his worries about the injury suffered by defender Tierney while away with Scotland.

Arteta said: “He came back from international duty and felt something wrong in his knee. There is some damage there. We will hopefully know more on Tuesday but it’s not looking good.”

Tierney’s injury, if serious, will trouble not only Arsenal on the run-in but Scotland who are expecting to face Ukraine in a delayed World Cup play-off semi-final in early June.

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