MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 0 – 3 Brighton

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Arsenal (0) 0 Brighton and Hove Albion (0) 3

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 14th May 2023. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, Jakob Kiwior, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Martin Ødegaard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Thomas Partey, Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Rob Holding, Leandro Trossard, Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Matt Turner, Reuell Walters.

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 42%

Referee: Andy Madley

Assistant Referees: Constantine Hatzidakis, Nick Hopton

Fourth Official: Darren England

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Peter Bankes; AVAR Wade Smith

Attendance: 60,139

Nothing changes at this stage of the season; we have to win, nothing else will do. Of course, we have to win all of our three remaining matches in order to have a chance of staying in the hunt for the Premiership title. Today’s match against Brighton and Hove Albion will be a difficult one, but it is still a game that we are more than able to win, and with home advantage today, we must surely be favourites to pick up all three points at full time.

The visitors started off the proceedings in a white-hot atmosphere here at the Emirates this afternoon, and within the first minute, our captain took a ball in the face and play was stopped for a little while, whilst he received treatment, composed himself and got back into the match. Pascal Gross conceded a corner as he whacked an attempted first-time pass out of play, but Gabriel Martinelli’s delivery was headed away by Moises Caicedo, and then Lewis Dunk hit a clearance straight at Bukayo Saka, who quickly found Martin Ødegaard but his backheel inside the penalty area went askew. There was a few really heavy challenges already, the latest one was by Moises Caicedo as he sent Gabriel Martinelli sprawling across the pitch. Aaron Ramsdale picked up a long pass from Billy Gilmour that went astray, and a couple of minutes later, he acrobatically saved a strong shot from Julio Enciso in order to prevent a certain goal. After a quarter of an hour’s play, Martin Ødegaard hit a superb shot from outside the penalty area which went inches wide of the post. Gabriel Martinelli was unable to continue as his injury got the better of him, so Leandro Trossard replaced him after just nineteen minutes of the match being played. Jorginho went to the floor after a tackle by Evan Ferguson, and although the match was quite physical, we were keeping the pressure up on the visitors. On the half hour, former Brighton man Leandro Rossard cut inside the visitors’ defence, but his shot flew skywards over the bar from close range, unfortunately. Pervis Estupinan fouled Bukayo Saka and received a yellow card for his troubles, and from the resulting free-kick from Leandro Trossard, Granit Xhaka headed it wide of the goal. As half-time approached, frustration started to creeep in, and the match started to get rather scrappy. In the five minutes injury time, after some pressure on the Brighton goal, Bukayo Saka hit the ball wide from ten yards, and a minute or so later, our captain fired a shot in from close range in on the left which went narrowly wide, just before referee Andy Madley brought the first half to an end.

Arsenal kicked off an important forty-five minutes, and immediately brought pressure to bear down on the Brighton goal. However, against the run of play, the visitors took the lead with a messy goal from Julio Enciso six minutes after the restart. Shortly afterwards, Granit Xhaka and Jorginho were replaced by Reiss Nelson and Thomas Partey, and after a chance by Reiss Nelson that was unlucky, the visitors started to apply pressure on the Arsenal goal which we managed to stop. The match seemed to swing backwards and forwards for a while and Martin Ødegaard slipped a lovely ball towards Leandro Trossard but his crisp shot was well saved by goalkeeper Jason Steele. The more we try to score the equaliser, the more we are frustrated, and the visitors can sense that, and are passing the ball around accordingly, as they feel that time is on their side now. Mikel Arteta made a double substitution with Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith-Rowe replacing Gabriel Jesus and Martin Ødegaard with twelve minutes of the match remaining. Into the final ten minutes and there are boos and jeers from our fans as Alexis Mac Allister drops to the floor and needs treatment, which looks to the vast majority of the crowd that he is time wasting. With six minutes of the game remaining, Gabriel went down in the penalty area, and we had a penalty appeal turned down. However, a minute or so later, Deniz Undav scored a second goal for the visitors, after some messy play by us outside the penalty area. As the match started to move towards its conclusion, the visitors grabbed a third in stoppage time through Pervis Estupinan which finished us off, it has to be said. An extremely disappointing end to an important match for us, and as such, it is now quite possible for Manchester City to win the Premiership title next weekend. 

In this “must win” game for us, we played sluggishly at times, and it looked like we lacked the necessary energy to win the match. However, with just two shots on target throughout the whole game, we had ourselves to blame today. The fans were leaving early, and there is a mood of glum resignation around the stadium now. We ran out of steam in the second half, and although for periods of the first half our play was good, in the second half we appeared to just crumble and let the visitors score their goals. Such a shame, as when the match started there was hope in the stadium that appeared to transfer to the players, but as the game progressed, we simply ran out of gas. Let’s see how they pick themselves up for the Forest match next Saturday afternoon.

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: Nottingham Forest at The City Ground on Saturday, 20th May at 5.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. 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

Tottenham could finish 8th despite “best start in 59 years”

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Before we begin to look towards todays game, let’s take a moment to have a little laugh at Tottenham.

They have been digging Arsenal out these last few weeks for “bottling the league”. But let’s not forget that 10 games in Spurs were being talked about as title contenders.

Spurs were sitting 3rd in the league after 10 games. They were experiencing their best start to a season to a season since 1963; 59 years ago. they had begun to build a lead on those other top 4 contenders.

Following their loss to Aston Villa, they now sit:

25 points behind Man City
9 points behind Newcastle
9 points behind Manchester United
5 points behind Liverpool
Level on points with Aston Villa

With Brighton having 3 games in hand, Tottenham could finish outside of the European places.

In a 3 horse race for the Premier League title, Spurs could finish 8th!!!

Moving onto us, today will not be easy.

Brighton are a very good side, and capable of beating anyone in this league on their day. Their 8th place position is false due to their 3 games in hand. My gut is they will probably finish 6.

But it is the type of game we should be winning if we want to win the league. And with just 3 games to go it is a match we have to win if that is going to be this season.

Reality is, we can not afford to drop anymore points this season.

Expecting Manchester City to fail to win 2 of their last 4 games is a huge ask. Expecting them to not win 3 out of 4 is implausible.

They face Everton at Goodison before we kick off. I do not think they will drop points despite their mid week trip to Real Madrid.

They could make 7 outfield changes to the team that drew with Madrid and their XI would still look like:

Ederson
Lewis Stones Laporte Gomes
Philips Gundogan
de Buryne
Mahrez Alvarez Foden

Ultimately, we just need to keep focusing on ourselves.

As Mikel Arteta has said, win our games and put ourselves in a position to take advantage of any City slip ups.

We could end up with 90 points and that lot up the road will say how we bottled winning the league. Meanwhile they could finish 8th, with Ryan Mason as their new manager and Harry Kane packing his bags to Manchester United.

UTA

Keenos

FIVE centre back options to replace Rob Holding at Arsenal

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Last week we discussed the profile of new defender Arsenal need to buy in the summer.

  • Better than Holding, but happy to be 2nd choice
  • Pacey, so we do not have to defend deeper
  • Comfortable on the ball
  • Less than £30million
  • Provide an option at right back

Jerry St. Juste

Often when a player has a stand-out game against a side, it leads fans of that club to say “we should sign him”. And Jerry St. Juste certainlly falls into that category.

I am sure before we played Sporting very few had heard of him, and no one would have been calling for the uncapped Dutchman to be an Arsenal summer signing. But that performance put him on many peoples radar.

Buying a player off one or two views rarely works – Freddie Ljungberg signed after one performance v England, but it was a different world then.

Arsenal scouts would have already been watching St. Juste. And his performance against us would have just made them watch him closer.

Against Arsenal, he played on the right hand side of a back three, and was a consistent attacking threat. But that is the first concern.

Where he plays for Sporting makes me think he would be better as cover for Ben White as an inverted full-back than playing central in a two. Very rarely did we test his defensive capabilities.

Saliba is often left one-on-one to deal with his opposing striker. St. Juste always has a man inside him covering mistakes. It is very different playing in a 2 instead of a 3.

You also have to question why someone with such obvious talent, and plenty of pace and power, is playing in Portugal at 26 and has not yet played for his country – he was last called up to the Netherlands team in 2001 but failed to play. And the answer to that is injury.

St. Juste only joined Sporting in the summer of 2022 and is already out injured for his 4th period this season. Each time he has missed games due to “muscle problems”, according to Transfermarkt.

He has missed 15 games and counting for Sporting this season. Last year he missed 21 games for Mainz in two seperate 2-month long injuries.

Injuries also saw him miss a lot of games for Feyenoord, and before that Heerenveen.

Considering Saliba’s back conerns, and Tomiyasu’s injury troubles over the last 2 seasons, signing someone with such a checkered injury history would be a huge risk.

I think St. Juste certainly fits the profile of player we need. But those injuries are a huge concern.

He will probably be top of a lot of Arsenal’s fans list, but I do not think he will be top of Edu’s.

Marc Guéhi

The former Chelsea academy player has been a consistent performer for the inconsistent Crystal Palace this season.

John Barnes recently said that Guehi is be someone that Arsenal should be looking to sign.

Barnes said “He is English, he is young with good technical ability on the ball and he is quick, so he’s a modern centre-back.”

Guehi certainly ticks all the boxes needed to be an Arsenal centre back. And at 22 he is just completing his 2nd full season in the Premier League. But there are some concerns.

2024 has a European Championships at the end of if. Guehi is one of a clutch of central defenders that has an outisde chance of making Gareth Southgate’s squad – alongside fellow former Chelsea lad Fikayo Tomori.

In 2022, he was capped 3 times for England. Southgate then omitted both Guehi and Tomori from his World Cup squad – opting instead for Eric Dier and Conor Coady.

Guehi was in the squad for the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying matches against Italy and Ukraine in March this year, but warmed the bench in both games. Tomori was left in Italy.

If Guehi has hopes of being in the England squad for the Euros, he needs to be playing regularly. And with William Saliba and Gabriel ahead him, he will not get the game time.

If Tomori is playing week in week out for Milan, whilst Guehi is sitting on our bench, the decision for Southgate is easy.

Palace signed Guehi for £18million in 2021. With 3 years left on his contract, they will not sell cheap. It will be £40m+.

Will Arsenal spend £40million+ on a central defender this summer? I am not sure.

We are already looking to spend £100m+ on a central midfielder (Declan Rice) and a winger. We do not have a bottomless money pot, so will be restriced as to what we spend on a winger and centre back. I would be surprised if we spend northwards of £30m on either of those two positions. And that would rule out Guehi.

I imagine Guehi’s destination will end up being Tottenham.

He would walk into their defence and the step up will be enough to get him on the plan to Germany.

I think Guehi is a fantastic player. I am just not sure he will do that “3rd choice centre back” role.

Josip Sutalo

Josko Gvardiol is the jewel in the Croatian defences crown. Expect him to move for big, big money this summer.

I do not expect us to be in the race for Gvardiol. He has Manchester City written all over him. But his international teammate Josip Sutalo is certainly one to look at.

At 23-years-old, he has become a regular for Zagreb this season. His form has also seen him selected to partner Gvardiol for his country.

Sutalo reminds me of a young John Stones.

Very comfortable with the ball at his feet, he trusts his ability on the ball under pressure. Like Stones this can lead him to occasionally get into trouble whilst playing out.

Whilst he is 6ft 3in, he does not always impose his height on the opposing striker, and can occassionaly look lightweight. He certainly needs to fill out his gangly frame. Again, this is not unlike John Stones in his Everton days.

Like Stones, Sutalo has the skills to also cover at right back,

With his reading of the game and passing, Sutalo has a lot of natural attributes that you would want in a defender. Being 2nd choice would give Arteta and his team the time to work on him.

With a reported £20million release clause, it is a deal Arsenal could make happen very easy.

Sutalo might not be the big name some Arsenal fans call for, but he is in the sort of market we work in. Making stars, not buying them.

Ben White / Takehiro Tomiyasu / Reuell Walters

Before this season begun, the plan would have been for Ben White to and William Saliba to battle it out on the right hand side of the defence.

White would have been expected to play a duel role – cover for Saliba and Takhiro Tomiyasu. We then still had Cedric Soares as additional cover.

No one could have predicted that White would become one of the best right backs in the league and – even when Tomiyasu would regain fitness – would be our first choice right back.

This was not a huge issue in January as it meant that if Saliba got injured, the option would still be there to move White centrally and play Tomiyasu full-back.

What Arsenal could not manage is two out of the three of them getting injured long term. And that is what happened with Saliba and Tomiyasu.

Once Cedric was sent to Fulham, the only other right back option at the club was Reuell Walters; and whilst some fans called for him to start, with White going to right back, Arteta opted for Holding.

Walters only began training with the first team this season, and only turned 18 in the summer. It would have been a big call to put him in.

But next season is different.

Walters would have been training with the senior side for 12 months, and he has made huge improvements since joining the first team training squad.

That then gives us the option to play White at centre back once more, with Tomiyasu coming in at right back. And then if we get to a situation where Tomiyasu and Saliba (or White) are injured once more, Walters can be called upon.

Walters suits the hybrid system Arteta plays – capable of playing right back and more centrally. He has the pace and power needed to not look like a boy playing a mans game, and is also comfortable on the ball.

Perhaps not ready this season, Walters may well be considered next season.

Declan Rice

For a long time, many have said Declan Rice is a central defender playing in midfield.

I expect Arsenal to spend big on him this summer. He will be the man to compete with Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka in their respective positions.

If we sign Rice, he not only provides an option at 6 and 8, but also at centre back.

He certainly has the physicality and defensive awareness to play there. And he would be another option alongside the White / Tomiyasu / Walters trio.

But it would be a concern if we bought Rice and expected him to be 3rd choice centre back, as well as compete with Xhaka and Partey in the middle.

We would risk having too many players who “can play centre back if needed” but no one whose main job it is to be back up to Saliba.

You can certainlty see Rice or White dropping into centre back if needed. But I think we need to buy a specialist.

My favourite to replace Holding at Arsenal? The Croation John Stones. Josip Sutalo.

Keenos