Brighton and Hove Albion (0) 2 Arsenal (0) 1

Premier League

AMEX Stadium, Village Way, Brighton BN1 9BL

Saturday, 20th June 2020. Kick-off time: 3.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding, Sead Kolašinac; Mattéo Guendouzi, Bukayo Saka; Dani Ceballos, Nicolas Pépé, Alexandre Lacazette; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Emiliano Martínez, Kieran Tierney, Zak Medley, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson, Mesut Özil, Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli.

Scorers: Nicolas Pépé (68 mins)

Yellow Cards: Alexandre Lacazette

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 59%

Referee: Martin Atkinson

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restructions

After the very forgettable match in Manchester three days ago, we need to reassert ourselves in the most positive of all ways, by winning this match on the south coast today. Nothing less than a win will do, not just for the points that we so desperately need, but for the confidence that it will give our fine bunch of fellows.

If there was any doubt in our minds about the boys’ intent for today’s match, they were surely dispelled as early as the seventh minute, when Bukayo Saka hit the Brighton crossbar with a clever shot that was worthy of a goal in anyone’s book. This match became a real slow burn quite early on, when Arsenal played the patience game very well; in fact, by the half hour mark we dominated possession and had four shots on the home side’s goal with very little to concern Bernd Leno at the other end. The game settled down quite well in our favour, as the general confidence in Arsenal grew as the minutes ticked by. Ten minutes from half time, Bernd Leno landed awkwardly on his right leg whilst neutralising a long ball, and it looked like his knee took his full weight after a highly controversial challenge from Neal Maupay; unfortunately, he was unable to continue, so Emiliano Martínez stepped up to take over the goalkeeping duties for the rest of the match. Almost immediately he was called into action when Aaron Mooy blasted a shot at the Arsenal goal, which our goalie covered extremely well. The match settled down, and in the five minutes injury time (which was added because of Bernd Leno’s injury) at the end of the first half, we were desperately unlucky not to score when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was tackled by Adam Webster just in front of goal after playing a lovely one-two with Alexandre Lacazette, which ultimately meant that we went into the break with the scores even.

Shortly after the restart, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang saw a weakness in the Brighton defence, and sneaked a left-footed shot in on the Brighton goal, which Mat Ryan easily pushed away. Arsenal started to push up into the Brighton penalty area more and more now, with the excellent Bukayo Saka being unlucky not to score with a left-footed shot that went narrowly wide. Although Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang did get the ball in the back of the net, it was cancelled out due to a narrow offside decision, confirmed by the the beastly and inconsistent VAR team at Stockley Park. Emiliano Martínez made a superb point-blank save from Neal Maupay, and in the following few minutes, Brighton started to put more pressure on our defence. A few moments later, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was again unfortunate not to score with a fierce left-footed shot, and literally out of nowhere, on the sixty-eighth minute, a superb left-footed shot by Nicolas Pépé sailed past Mat Ryan into the Brighton net to put us into the lead with a truly world-class goal. As often happens, the losing side comes back with purpose, and it was no different here. Just seven minutes later, a terrible mix-up in the Arenal defence after a short corner, saw Lewis Dunk redress the balance. Now we have a game. Young Eddie Nketiah replaced Alexandre Lacazette on the seventy-eighth minute; Arsenal applied more pressure on the Brighton defence, and although we left ourselves open, the players tried desperately to score the second goal of the match. With four minutes left, Mikel Arteta brought on Kieran Tierney, Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson for Bukayo Saka, Dani Ceballos and Nicolas Pépé. With just seconds left, a horrendous turn of events on our right-hand side led to Neal Maupay flicking the ball past Emiliano Martínez to score the winner for the home side, which led to unsavoury scenes when the final whistle blew just seconds later.

How can it be? One-nil up, two-one down, a catalogue of schoolboy errors that made matters worse with no obvious leaders out there on the pitch. And with 59 per cent overall possession also. Along with all this, we also have a growing injury list that is concerning, to say the least. The attitude of some of the players has to be brought into question, and sooner rather than later, Mikel Arteta has to reshuffle this pack, and get some new players into the club. This is serious stuff now. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Southampton at St. Mary’s Stadium, Britannia Rd, Southampton SO14 5FP, on Thursday, 25th June at 6.00pm (Premier League). Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.

A defence punished by individual errors, a midfield without the ability to control a game, a forward line starved of chances.

So much has changed in the world in the last 3 months , so little has changed on the football pitch.

Away to Manchester City was always going to be a tough re-start for the 2019/20 season.

Prior to the suspension for Covid19, Arsenal were showing a bit of form.

Unbeaten in the league in 2020, only Liverpool had gained more points in the previous 6 games. But Arsenal had not won at the Etihad since 2015 and victory on Wednesday night made it 7 wins in a row for Abu Dhabi sportswashing project.

Since Sheikh Mansour bought the club back in 2008, Arsenal have lost 15 of the 29 meetings between the clubs. Prior to his purchase, it was 15 defeats in 107 games; a run dating back to 1936.

It was a terribly predictable performance from Arsenal. One which could have been a replay from many games under Unai Emery and Arsene Wenger.

A solid start, followed by individual errors at the back, ending in another defeat on the road to a top team.

The performance of David Luiz was almost as predictable as Arsenal.

How often throughout the Brazilian’s career – for Arsenal, Chelsea and Brazil – has he made a huge clanger in a game, and then followed it up with a second one?

Back in October, Arsenal faced Liverpool. 1-0 down but in the game. Luiz allowed Salah to get inside him, and then decided to pull the Egyptian down. Penalty. Goal. 2-0. Game over.

Whilst Manchester City were dominating, we were holding firm going into injury time of the first half.

Mikel Arteta’s decision to sacrifice creativity for hard work seemed to be working – and thanks to some good saves from Berd Leno, it was 0-0. Then Luiz – who had coem on for the injured Pablo Mari, let a ball slip past him and Raheem Sterling but the home side 1-0 up.

6 minutes into the second half and Luiz let Riyad Mahrez give him the slip, and then decided to pull him down. Penalty. Red card. Goal. Game over.

After that, the match became a training session. Manchester City passing the ball around with zero threat from Arsenal, but not overly looking to threat themselves.

A late Phil Foden goal in 2nd half injury time was the cherry on the cake.

Despite losing 3-0, Arsenal were not actually that bad defensively.

Leno, Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi and Kieran Tierney were all having good games. They were let down by the clown between them.

With Granit Xhaka and early victim to injury, Arsenal were completely overun in midfield. It was literally men against boys.

Matteo Guendouzi + Joe Willock v Kevin de Bruyne + David Silva.

It was like putting Tyson Fury in the ring with someone who had only recently turned pro. It was a complete miss match.

In de Bruyne and Silva, Man City had 2 world class players. In Guendouzi and Willock Arsenal had 2 average players.

During the game someone asked me “what Arsenal players would get into the Manchester City team”. The answer was “none”.

You get what you pay for.

Manchester City spend over £80million a year on salaries than Arsenal. Over a 30 man first team squad, that is an average of £50,000 a week more.

The more you have available to pay on players, the better players you can attract. That is fact.

Man City pay 2 players over £300,000 a week (reportedly). Arsenal just 1. They pay 4 players above £200,000 a week compared to Arsenal’s 2. 6 players get paid above £150,000 a week against Arsenal’s 3.

11 Manchester City players are paid above £120,000 a week – basically their starting XI. Just 5 Arsenal players are paid above that.

Put simply, for every player Arsenal have within a wage bracket, Manchester City have two. And this pattern continues until you drop below £80,000 a week. Arsenal dominate the lower paid positions.

You can not expect to compete for the top 2 places on a consistent basis when you only pay the 5th highest wage bill.

The lack of control in midfield, meant that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pepe and Bukayo Saka were starved of the ball.

In games like last night, it must be very hard for strikers to remain motivated.

It would not be a surprise if last night was to be the last time we see David Luiz in an Arsenal, shirt. And as for Mesut Ozil, that is a blog for another day.

Tomorrow we go again away to Brighton. It would have been a great trip a month ago when we had 28c weather. A quick train to the seaside and plenty of beer.

Hopefully we get the enjoyment of a victory to replace the disappointment of a top trip stolen.

Keenos

Follow @KeenosAFC