Arsenal starting XI: Raya (GK), White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber; Partey, Rice (red card 49’), Odegaard; Saka, Havertz, Trossard.

Brighton starting XI: Verbruggen (GK), Veltman, Van Hecke, Dunk, Hinshelwood; Milner, Baleba; Minteh, João Pedro, Mitoma; Welbeck.

Match Officials:
Referee : Chris Kavanagh.
Assistant Referee: Lee Betts.
Assistant Referee: Richard West.
Fourth Official: John Busby.
Video Assistant Referee: Andrew Madley.
Additional Video Assistant Referee: Steven Meredith.

Premier League 
Emirates Stadium
Saturday 31st August 2024
KO: 12:30 (UK)

The Gunners return for another Premier League fixture at home to Brighton looking to build on to two positive first games with two 2-0 victories at home to Wolves and the week prior away at Aston Villa. The opposition for today’s game, Brighton have also kicked off their season in good form under their new young manager Fabian Hürzeler with a 3-0 away win to Everton on the opening day of the season and a dramatic 2-1 victory over Manchester United last week with João Pedro grabbing the winner 5 minutes into injury time. 

They also had a carabao cup fixture midweek on Tuesday against Crawley where they came out 4-0 winners however, suffered a huge injury blow to their new signing Matt O’Riley 6 minutes into the game giving him a nightmare debut for the Seagulls. 

Arteta and the board have also been busy on the final week of transfer deadline day. New signing Merino was officially announced by the club on Tuesday however, after only his first training session, he succumbed to an injury after Arteta reported that Gabriel had fallen on top of Merino and caused pain to Merino’s shoulder leaving him out for a few weeks. Along with some departures, Fabio Vieira completed his season-long loan to Porto as well as Reiss Nelson completing a loan move to Fulham on deadline day. The main two permanent departures consisted of Eddie Nketiah’s move down to the South of London to Crystal Palace for £30 million. Personally I think this is a great move for Eddie and both clubs as he was gradually falling down the pecking order under Arteta and a move to Crystal Palace allows him to show his true potential in a good side and hopefully he can kick on. 

The second major departure was Aaron Ramsdale’s move to Southampton for £18 million with £7 million to be paid in add-ons by the Saints. Again, I think this is another great move for Aaron and both clubs. Aaron had been a great player for us and we knew exactly what we would get out of him week in , week out he proved to the fans that he was worth his price after he signed and his personality and character cemented his relationship with the fans. 

Two other signings were made by the Gunners. Following the departure of Ramsdale, Arsenal have brought in Bournemouth goalkeeper Neto on a season-long loan deal. 

The main talk of Arsenal’s deadline day transfer business was the signing of Raheem Sterling from Chelsea again on a season-long loan. I think this is a good signing for us as Sterling is a prove player in the Premier League and can show his ability when given the opportunity. Although he may not be at his top level anymore, he is still at a great level and is good for covering either of our wings and will step up to the plate when needed.

Ex-Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck kicked us off with The Gunners shooting towards the Clock End. Through his he first moments of the game Brighton had set up with a very high press however, Arsenal were able to break through the lines and Saka was able to use a sharp change of direction to get in and behind the Brighton left-back Himsheldwood before firing an attempt from an acute angle straight into the Brighton goalkeeper Verbruggen. 

Brighton also seemed to have set up to play through the Arsenal press and play out from the back managing to progress their play through Baleba who makes a start following Billy Gilmour’s departure to Napoli. Havertz had been battling early with Brighton centre-back Van Hecke and his knock down made its way into the path of Leo Trossard whose cross was overhit. As Brighton continued to try and play out from the back Partey put in a strong tackle on the right hand side and the ball ricocheted to Bukayo Saka who was then fouled on the right hand side of the box. 

His freekick was hit low into the wall, and bounced back out to him as he recycled the ball out to Martin Ødegaard who played an exceptional lofted pass to Bukayo Saka whose attempt again was hit straight at Verbruggen. Arsenal began to ramp up the pressure and another long ball made its way over the top to Saka who tried to cross the ball over to Havertz however, his pass was wayward. 10 minutes in and Saka was giving Hinshelwood a schooling , again beating him and Kaoru Mitoma but huddled cross  was partially cleared out to Ben White whose powerful attempt appeared to strike the arm of Brighton centre-half Lewis Dunk however, VAR deemed his arm to be in a natural position. Personally I think that it was a 50/50 chance of being given I guess you never know nowadays! 

Brighton had overcome the few minutes of Arsenal pressure and were able to carve out a chance of their own a whipped cross from João Pedro , to the back post was met by Yankuba Minteh who towered over Jurrien Timber however, his attempt was parried away to safety by David Raya. A couple of minutes later, Brighton midfielder James Milner went down forcing Brighton into an early change as he was replaced by the 20 year-old Yasin Ayari. Arsenal still were on top and a beautiful diagonal pass over to Trossard from Ben White was brought down and Trossard’s ball in was met by Ødegaard whose attempt went straight into the hands of Verbruggen. After a 50/50 challenge between Minteh and Ødegaard, Minteh appeared to catch our captain however, he managed to get back up off of his feet and play restarted. 

With both teams still battling, Brighton were able to slow down the game and invite Arsenal pressure managing to hold the ball and progress through the middle of the park. A sloppy pass from Thomas Partey made it’s way to Baleba who’s ball was slightly delayed through to Minteh who was able to bring it down and loft it into the area however, the ball was headed away to Kai Havertz whose header went straight back into our area to Mitoma whose volley whistled past Raya and the post. As both teams began to settle down and maintain possession, Trossard was well defended again by Joel Veltman exciting the away crowd who had been booing him for the majority of the game. However, a long ball up to Saka who was tussling with Dunk was won by our star boy as poor defending from Dunk allowed Bukayo to beat Van Hecke to the ball and he played the ball through to Havertz who lifted the ball over Verbruggen and into an empty net; a great finish for his second of the season. 

We then ramped up the tempo as Declan Rice’s sliding challenge was late as he received a booking. After Rice’s challenge, Fabian Hurzeler , the Brighton coach managed to acquire his first ever yellow card as he lost his head with the fourth official. Brighton then were able to get a free kick however, João Pedro’s attempt went over and behind for a goal kick. We were now into 4 minutes of added time and Saka played a nice ball over to Trossard whose ball was cut out by a Brighton defender however, Leo was able to fire a shot straight at Verbruggen. 

At the brink of the half-time whistle, Partey pulled down João Pedro on the edge of the area and received a booking, our second of the game. Hinshelwood stepped up to take it and his effort was fizzed in but cleared by Gabriel and the referee blew the half-time whistle. 

Half time views: 

A nervy start for us however, going into the break 1-0 up will hopefully bring out some more confidence in the second half. Another goal for Kai Havertz showing how clinical he can be and what Arteta has formed him into. Also Saka has been playing exceptionally well in the first half always putting us on the front foot when on the attack. An overall comfortable first-half performance and Arteta will be looking to push for more in the second-half. 

As we kicked off the second half, we were straight on the front foot with Rice delivering a cross which resulted in a corner where Rice’s ball was met by Gabriel who headed wide. Brighton won a free kick after Rice committed a foul however, he ended up on the floor after appearing to slightly nudge the ball away from Veltman. As a result, Rice was shown a second yellow card and sent off! A very controversial moment and it is clear as to why Rice was against the referee’s decision. Rice’s sending off changed the momentum of the game as they straight away began an attack which was shut down by the Arsenal  defenders as the ball rolled into the hands of Raya. 

As Brighton held onto the ball, a long ball over the top from Dunk, made its way through to Minteh who managed to get away from Gabriel and fire a shot at Raya. The ball came straight back into the path of João Pedro who slotted it past Raya into an empty net. Trossard was then replaced by Riccardo Calafiori as Brighton again looked for an an attack with Hinshelwood’s effort going wide. We began to look less convincing with Havertz becoming isolated up top. Brighton again attacked through Mitoma whose cross was cleared by Gabriel as Ødegaard looked to counter. This was our first few moments of possession following Rice’s red card. 

We were able to overturn the ball and Havertz led the counter attack who played a ball to Ødegaard however, his ball to Calafiori was intercepted by Veltman. Brighton then counter attacked as Van Hecke played a nice diagonal pass over to Mitoma whose ball to Welbeck was nearly net and was cleared for a corner. 

Brighton’s corner was swung in straight into the hands of Raya however, Brighton were able to win the ball back as Saka is overcrowded. Timber was then another Arsenal player to be put in the book after a late challenge on Minteh. Brighton made their first changes of the game as Minteh and Veltman were replaced by new signing Georginio Rutter and Pervis Estupinan. Ødegaard is also replaced by Mikel as a change for Gabi Martinelli. 

As play resumed, Welbeck lost the ball on the edge of our area and the ball was cleared long up to Havertz who took a brilliant touch past the Brighton defender as he put himself through on goal however, pressure from Van Hecke forced a weak attempt from our German as Verbruggen stuck  out a foot to save. Then down the other end for Brighton, Ayari takes a shot straight at Raya. A few moments later, a smart ball from Havertz over to Saka is met by our star boy however, his attempt was straight at the keeper. 

Timber had gone down for treatment and as a result he had to come off and was replaced by Oleksandr Zinchenko. Brighton again were on the attack however, Ben White’s sliding challenge stopped Mitoma from receiving the ball. The game began to simmer out as Brighton began to frustrate us by delaying play. Brighton also made another substitution with Julio Enciso and Simon Adingra replacing Welbeck and Mitoma. However, Brighton were still pushing for a winner as Baleba’s shot was blocked by Gabriel. 

6 minutes were added and Brighton kept us quiet with consistent pressure as Enciso fired a cross into Ritter whose header went straight into the ground. The full time whistle was blown by the referee over the gloomy sky of the Emirates reflecting on our dull second-half performance.

Full time views:

A very disappointing result for us after a very positive first half. 

Now to talk about the red card, which ultimately changed the course of the game. Personally, I do not think that it is a red card due to the fact that the ball was currently rolling meaning that even if Rice didn’t touch it, Veltman wouldn’t have kicked the ball anyway. Second of all, the direction of the ball has not changed from where the player was kicking the ball and the free kick was also being taken by Veltman a long way front of where the foul was committed. 

I’m sure there will be a lot of talk about this incident over the weekend and again some more inconsistency from the referees as João Pedro also booted the ball away into the stands in the first half receiving no booking however, when nudges the ball an inch away he receives a second booking and is sent off. 

Although for me, Arsenal’s overall second half performance could have still been a lot better as our attackers became isolated inviting more Brighton pressure.

Anyway, onwards and upwards and we’ve got the little lads next door in two weeks away so hopefully we can finish them off and get back onto a good run. Onto Spurs…

COYG

Hudson