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Brighton & Hove Albion welcomed the Premier League champions to the Amex Stadium whilst celebrating some anniversary and wearing a replica of the shirts they wore back then.
There was a sizeable Arsenal contingent in what was later confirmed as a record attendance at the Amex, but the home fans for some reason seemed to smell blood and created a very excitable atmosphere, I’m not sure that febrile atmosphere and Sussex can really go together so excitable will have to do.
Arteta went with arguably his strongest starting XI although at full-time that statement would almost certainly come under some scrutiny. Brighton by comparison made a few changes but to be honest I didn’t really recognise most of their team, such has been the churn down that-a-ways. Max Dowman had a seat on the bench, Timber was back, Hincapie was back and Bruno started alongside Rice.
Now I don’t know if the players were all out on the sauce on Friday night but I cannot recall a more feeble and lacklustre 30 minutes from an Arsenal team than what they served up yesterday, for many a number of years. Raya, Bruno, Timber, Calafiori, the list goes on, the shoddy passing, lack of energy, lack of movement, continually losing their challenges, they looked worryingly unprepared for what Brighton actually threw at them. Alternately Brighton were snappy, rapid, had great movement, won their duels, took shots without dithering, pressed as if their lives depended on it and seemed perfectly prepared by Hurzeler. In fact I’d imagine that this game in particular had been in the back of his mind for weeks beforehand and mostly because of the history he has with Arteta.
Arsenal pretty much created nothing of note in those opening 30 minutes but despite the sloppiness in defence, the lack of zip in midfield and the inertia in the attack it somehow remained 0-0, we just had to keep it tight at the back.
After a torrid opening 15 minutes where Brighton had looked irresistible the Gunners were actually getting some semblance of control back. It looked as if the lads could see out the half when on 31 minutes Gross got the ball and advanced on the Arsenal box with Calafiori and Gabriel (I think)/ blocking his route to goal. Calafiori for some inexplicable reason backed off allowing Gross to take a few steps forwards and then fire in a low shot on goal. Raya actually did well to get across and down and got a slight touch but the velocity took it past him and into the goal off the inside of the post. 1-0
The Brighton fans were in full party mood and the Arsenal players looked a tad shellshocked. The Gunners responded as best they could but except for a few Saka dribbles and the odd run from Tzolis we had nothing up front, Havertz was a passenger and I expected a couple of changes at halftime. Saka had our best chance of the half but his effort went well wide and he was offside anyway for the umpteenth time. Brighton went straight down the other end and made it 2-0, a shot from Kostoulas as again we failed to press him and his low shot flew perfectly inside the post with Raya helpless. Half-time 2-0
Ok, the first half was pretty poor we all thought, well I did, but once Mikel gets into them we’ll see a reaction won’t we, er no!
The second half followed the same pattern, energetic Brighton vs lethargic Arsenal. Arteta had made no changes and when he finally did it was too late. On 57 minutes a Brighton corner was headed home by Chema and that was pretty much game over. On 61 an equally lethargic and probably mystified Arteta took off the ineffective Bruno and the clearly rusty Timber replacing them with our World Cup winners Zubimendi and Merino. Did it make any difference, hmm, not really.
On 68 minutes Brighton almost scored a 4th then 5 minutes later Arteta took off the ineffective Odegaard and peripheral Tzolis and brought on Eze and Gyokeres and to be honest they actually added a bit of urgency, in fact Viktor looked far more threatening than the powderpuff Havertz. On 78 minutes great work by Gyokeres put Havertz clear through on goal but with the whole net to aim for, Kai decided to fire straight at the goalkeeper, so nul points for him. Dowman came on and ran around a bit, a minute after Brighton almost scored again. But it all amounted to much ado about nothing.
87 minutes and 90 minutes saw Brighton substitute O’Reilly have two great chances to put the cherry on the Brighton cake but missed the first and Raya did well to save the second.
So ended possibly the worst 90 minutes by an Arsenal team under Arteta arguably since the days of Mustafi and Kolasinac.
It was a really bad day in the office all around, bad by Arteta and his coaches and bad by the Arsenal players. Brighton played really well and Arsenal did their best to accommodate them.
We March On – after the Interlull
**By Kev**