Arsenal slipped to a shock 2-1 defeat against Brighton at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday as their hopes of finishing in the top four took a huge blow.
And the hits just keep on coming for Arsenal. The Gunners did more than enough to get a point against Brighton & Hove Albion at the Emirates today. In fact, they probably did enough to win. Instead, it’s a 2-1 loss.
The Gunners out-chanced Brighton, creating nearly 3 expected goals on the afternoon. The Seagulls managed less than 1. As has been the case for Arsenal, they did not finish their chances. And unfortunately, Brighton bucked their trend of being similarly poor finishers to convert two chances.
The Gunners were way below the required standard during Monday night’s 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace but there was no positive response five days on as Leandro Trossard punished another tame opening spell from Mikel Arteta’s side.
Gabriel Martinelli had a header on the stroke of half-time scrubbed off when VAR eventually judged him to be offside in an extremely tight call but Enock Mwepu converted a fine half-volley to put Brighton in control.
Brighton’s travelling support were bouncing in their corner of the Emirates after that – they’d only seen their side score once during their wait for a win – but their nerves were plain to see during a frantic finale after Martin Odegaard’s deflected long-range hit led to Arsenal finally upping the intensity in search of a last-gasp equaliser.
“It has been a tough week; especially today because we wanted a reaction [to the defeat at Crystal Palace],” Arteta told BBC. “It came in the second half, which is too late; we have to have the courage and personality to play much better and raise the level in the first half.
“We made it really difficult for ourselves. We were sloppy, we had no purpose to attack, we were really imprecise and we didn’t want to play forward.
“We’ve shown for many weeks how well we can play; it has been a difficult week and we’ve lost some big players, but if you get what you want, not everything is going to be with a blue sky. This is our team in the good moments and especially the defeats.
“There are many games to play but we have to be concerned about that performance, especially first half.”
Mikel Arteta rejigged the Arsenal starting lineup due to injuries and midfielder Granit Xhaka started at left back, a decision that gave Arsenal no control in midfield and no cohesion in attack in the first half.
Arsenal started the second-half brightly but found themselves 2-0 down after 67 minutes when Mwepu’s stunning half-volley flew into the bottom corner.
Odegaard grabbed a goal back for Arsenal in the 89th minute and Robert Sanchez pulled off a sharp stop from Eddie Nketiah deep into injury-time to ensure there was no comeback.
Brighton move up to 11th after another frustrating outing for Arsenal followers. They’ve missed the chance to move fourth twice this week and it’s now three defeats in four in the league.
PRAIZSPORTS POV
- Sambi Lokonga as a single pivot did not work out. Some of that is down to Brighton working to deny the ball going into him from the centerbacks and some of that is on him misplacing a few too many passes. Sambi might have had an easier time (and Arsenal played better in the first 45) if one of Emile Smith Rowe or Martin Ødegaard had dropped deeper to make themselves available.
- Granit Xhaka at left back did not work out. Arsenal needed his presence in the midfield to control the flow of the game with Thomas Partey out injured. Mikel Arteta doesn’t trust Nuno Tavares enough right now to play him at LB. Fine. That’s his decision as a manager.
- Fair play to Mikel, he recognized that things weren’t working and changed things up to start the second half to get Granit Xhaka into the midfield. That worked. Arsenal looked better.
- Alexandre Lacazette hasn’t scored from open play in over 20 hours of Premier League football. He didn’t have a shot on goal today. He clearly cannot do the things that Arsenal need him to do.