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Match Report: Brighton 1 – 1 Arsenal

Brighton and Hove Albion (1) 1 Arsenal (1) 1
Premier League
American Express Community Stadium, Village Way, Brighton BN1 9BL
Sunday, 26th December 2018. Kick-off time: 5.15pm

(4-2-3-1) Leno; Lichtsteiner, Sokratis, Koscielny, Kolašinac; Xhaka; Torreira; Guendouzi, Özil, Lacazette; Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Čech, Elneny, Ramsey, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Nketiah, Willock.
Scorers: Aubameyang
Yellow Cards: Kolašinac
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Attendance: 30,608

Boxing Day at Brighton, shivering on the South Coast! We were defeated here back in March by the odd goal in three with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang grabbing our only goal on the day. Nine months ago, we were floundering with our points tally of 45 in 29 matches which happened to ber our worst record since 1995. Still, it’s a new season with a new manager, so we’ll wait to see what good things that St. Stephen’s Day may hold for us down in Sussex!

Sure enough, seven minutes from the start, our questions were answered with a superb strike from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that put us ahead in the match; some sterling work by Alexandre Lacazette ensured our top-scoring striker made no mistake with an excellent finish that was destined for the back of the Brighton net the very second that the ball left PEA’s boot. For the next half hour we were in the ascendancy with two very good chances from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that brought out the best in the Brighton goalkeeper, Mat Ryan, who to be fair, kept them in the match more than once at this point in time. Then, as in a few matches in the Premiership this season, we somehow pushed the self-destruct button. A ball that was seemingly going nowhere, was headed into the direction of Brighton’s centre-forward Jurgen Locadia, who simply went around Bernd Leno to equalise the scores. For the remaining ten mintues of the first half, we appeared to lose the control we once had earlier, and it has to be said that the half-time whistle was a blessing in disguise.

After the break, Mesut Ozil was substituted for young Alex Iwobi, but unfortunately the second half appeared to continue in the same vein as the end of the first for us. Our creativity and ingenuity went awry, whilst The Seagulls sensed that a chance for them to take all three points was now a real possible outcome of the match, with them capitalising on every missed tackle and stray pass that we had the misfortune to do. Bearing in mind that the home side had already had a goal against us ruled out for a foul in the previous half, it seemed to be that they now had the key to the door of our defence. When we did move forward, it was thanks to the creative vision of Mattéo Guendouzi, who tirelessly tried to find ways through the Brighton defence, and in doing so became the recipient of some very strong and physical tackling, most of which were unnecessary assaults on the young midfielder. Mr. Emery replaced Alexandre Lacazette with Aaron Ramsey after the hour, and ten mintues later, the still not-quite-match-fit Laurent Koscielny headed for the bench with Ainsley Maitland-Niles taking the field in his place. It didn’t matter either way as the home side found renewed confidence and endlessly put together chances to try and sneak in the winner during the latter stages of the match. Thankfully, despite one or two close shaves, we got away with a point from a match that in essence was in places quite a dull affair with sparks of action.

In less than a week’s time, the January transfer window opens, and with it arrives the opportunity for Mr. Emery to flex his financial muscles and purchase new players to add to his squad – and boy, don’t we need it! If we are to progress to cup finals and regular top four places in the Premiership, then we surely need players that will mirror our ambitions, because at the moment, we are there for the taking, and it has been some kind of miracle that we have not been punished badly for our weaknesses in defence. Our next match is the rampant Liverpool at Anfield on early Saturday evening, and it has to be said that despite our injuries, we need to get a result from that game, but after viewing the events of today’s match at Brighton, it could be a very difficult game for us. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. 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.

There is Clock watches left…

Despatch will be after boxing day.https://t.co/YCztwa199C pic.twitter.com/DFQnTMaF62

— 🎗 ///SHE WORE/// 🎗 (@SheWore) December 23, 2018

Match Report: Arsenal 3 – 1 Burnley

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Arsenal (1) 3 Burnley (0) 1
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Saturday, 22nd December 2018. Kick-off time: 12.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Leno: Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Monreal, Kolašinac; Elneny, Xhaka; Guendouzi, Özil, Aubameyang; Lacazette,
Substitutes: Čech, Lichtsteiner, Ramsey, Torreira, Iwobi, Nketiah, Saka
Scorers: Aubameyang, Iwobi
Yellow Cards: Sokratis, Guendouzi
Referee: Kevin Friend
Attendance: 59,493

Burnley are one of those seemingly forgotten Lancashire clubs that have fallen from grace a while ago, but there was a time of course, when they were considered to be one of the top sides in the old First Division, and Turf Moor was always a tough place to go to try obtain a result. In fact, one of our most famous matches was played against them at The Old Place on Friday 1st May 1953 when our 3-2 victory not only saw us win our seventh League Championship in sixteen peace-time seasons over title rivals Preston North End, but we also did it by one of the closest margins of all time; under the old goal average system, we became champions by 0.009 of a goal – 1.516 against PNE’s 1.417! Ironically, Preston North End beat us by two clear goals the week before; had they beaten us by just one more goal, it would have been them, and not us who would have been champions. A very close run thing indeed.

This match was a physically tough affair with absolutely no quarter given nor taken, as today, we desperately needed a result here at The Emirates not only consign the last two results to the dustbin of history, but to give ourselves a massive confidence boost to get through the maelstrom of the often oh-so-difficult Christmas league programme. The first goal of the match came within the first quarter of an hour, with our captain of the day Mesut Özil, orchestrating proceedings in his first full start for us since early November. A slick pass incising the Burnley defence found Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (viaSead Kolašinac), who wasted no time in introducing the match ball to the back of the The Clarets’ net by way of a well-taken volley. Being one-up so early in the game, this now gave everyone confidence to score more goals; despite some very wild physical tackles we assumed our dominance by half-time. The only bad issue to report from the business in the first half was an injury to Nacho Monreal, less than ten minutes before the break; he was replaced by the experienced Stephan Lichtsteiner, and in doing so, Mr. Emery changed the formation of the team, which changed the flow of the game.
Amazingly, this was the first occasion this season that we led at the break, and within minutes of the restart we reopened our account professionally and cleanly. After a bit of a mix-up in our defence, the ball found its way to Matteo Guendouzi, who in a blink of eye distributed it to Sead Kolašinac; looking up, he could see movement from our forwards, so he slotted it nicely to Alexandre Lacazette who delivered the opportunity to score on a plate to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He composed himself well, and made no mistake in putting Arsenal two up, despite the ball taking an unfortunate deflection past the Burnley goalkeeper. The visitors, to be fair, did not even blink an eyelid and came at Arsenal with vigour and agression. They grabbed a goal back just after the hour and for the rest of match, it was looking rather like Burnley would steal an equaliser at some point. It was indeed fortunate that Mr. Emery had already substituted Mohamed Elneny for Lucas Torreira as his dogged and determined style of play enabled us to neutralise the visitors’ threats. The coup de grâce came in the 91st minute when Alex Iwobi scored from close range to put the match beyound any reasonable doubt. Maybe the nasty undercurrent mood of the match spilled over at the end when it appeared that the two managers exchanged angry words with each other near the players’ tunnel, but it all appeared to be a Yuletide storm in a December teacup that disappeared into nothing.

Overall, we should be both pleased and relieved that this match is over; after the disappointment of the previous two games, we desperately needed to get back on track with a good win to keep up the with the top four Champions League places, and now that we have, the team can march on to the clash with Brighton on St. Stephen’s Day with renewed confidence. Of course, it all depends on results around us, but at this moment in time, Arsenal showed beyond doubt that skill and teamwork can overcome all issues. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. 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.