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

Premier League

Amex Stadium, Village Way, Brighton BN1 9BL

Saturday, 2nd October 2021. Kick-off time: 5.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Thomas Partey, Albert Sambi Lokonga; Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Emile Smith-Rowe; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Bernd Leno, Alexandre Lacazette, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Rob Holding, Cédric Soares, Nicolas Pépé, Nuno Tavares, Mohamed Elneny, Gabriel Martinelli.

Yellow Cards: Thomas Partey

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 42%

Referee: Jonathan Moss

Assistant Referees: Marc Perry, Timothy Wood

Fourth Official: John Brooks

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Chris Kavanagh; AVAR James Mainwaring

Attendance: circa 30,000

As much is known, our only absentee today is midfielder Granit Xhaka, who will be missing for three months after suffering a knee ligament injury in an incident against Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, and it is looking like Albert Sambi Lokonga will be replacing him in the starting line-up at Brighton this afternoon.

As we begin proceedings off here at the Amex, the conditions are wet and treacherous with a greasy pitch; but within a minute or so of the start, Bukayo Saka keenly tested Robert Sánchez, the Brighton goalkeeper, with a clever shot. This set the pattern for a while, with Arsenal setting the pace and moving the ball around quickly and accurately, in order to attempt to break down the home side’s defence. The difference between the two teams is that we look the more confident at this point in the match, and although the Seagulls came at us several times in a “smash’n’grab” style tactic, our defenders neutralised the threat. On the twentieth minute, our hearts were in our mouths when Aaron Ramsdale allowed the ball to slip out of his hands after a deceptive ball flew in at some speed from the left, but thankfully Lewis Dunk blasted the ball over the bar and into the blue. A couple of minutes later, we almost scored the opening goal when Bukayo Saka beat Dan Burn down the right flank and crossed, under pressure, for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to rise above Shane Duffy for a looping header that just touched the post before the home side cleared the ball. The home side started to apply some pressure on us with several chances going wide and over the bar, but still the boys held firm. We started to lose possession constantly in the wrong half of the pitch, allowing the Brighton strikers free rein to take shots, seemingly at will, on Aaron Ramsdale’s goal. Our afternoon so far was summed up perfectly when Thomas Partey blasted an awful free-kick high up and into the stands from twenty yards in the thirty-fifth minute, and when play resumed, Brighton continued to dominate play. With five minutes left of the first half, Bukayo Saka ran on to a ball near the byline courtesy of Emile Smith-Rowe which was met by Thomas Partey but his low shot went a couple of yards wide. Just before the break, we had a period of good play which led to sustained pressure on the Brighton goal, and although Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looked as if he was going to score the opening goal from point-blank range, Emile Smith-Rowe’s ball went by him and out of play seconds before Jonathan Moss blew the whistle for the half-time break.

With the match still there to be won, the home side kicked off the second half in the torrential rain, and with no substitutions at this point, we nearly went a goal down within four minutes when a curling shot from Jakub Moder went a few inches past Aaron Ramsdale’s left-hand post. However, a few minutes later, Albert Sambi Lokonga’s shot went high and wide from about twenty yards, and then Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was in a one-on-one situation with Robert Sánchez, but although Shane Duffy’s sliding tackle robbed our man of his chance, he was in an offside position when he collected the ball, sadly. Thomas Partey blasted yet another shot up and over the Brighton bar soon afterwards, and the game started to oscillate from goalmouth to goalmouth with no clear chances created by either side. With twenty-eight minutes left of the match, a lacklustre Martin Ødegaard was replaced by Nicolas Pépé, and after a collision between Lewis Dunk and Robert Sánchez in the Brighton goalmouth, the match continued in the same vein, with the home side putting us under pressure. Alexandre Lacazette replaced Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with twenty minutes of the match remaining, and almost immediately, we sprung an attack which released Emile Smith-Rowe. He carried the ball into the box, and fired a low shot that was kicked behind by Robert Sánchez. Shortly afterwards, we had a penalty shout that was denied by a VAR review, and almost immediately the home side came for us in earnest with Aaron Ramsdale making heroic saves from Leandro Trossard, Marc Cucurella and Solly March which most definitely kept us in the match. Just before injury time, Bukayo Saka was injured and being unable to continue playing, limped off, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles taking his place for the rest of the game. The only thing remembered in the three minutes’ injury time was a penalty shoiut from Brighton, which quite rightly was denied by VAR, otherwise this match limped to its sorry and unmemorable conclusion. 

This instantly forgettable match saw us struggle at times with the chances that Brighton threw at us, and in very poor conditions we held out and did the best that we possibly could away from home. We defended very well as a unit (despite the absence of Granit Xhaka), and although we didn’t score today, most importantly, we didn’t let any in either. Yes, it was disappointing, especially after last Sunday’s result, but alwaysremember, that as our first great manager Herbert Chapman used to instruct his Arsenal teams nearly a century ago, “every team goes onto the pitch with a point, and what we have we hold. Why give it away?”. We got a point here at the Amex Stadium, and going into the international break, of that we can be more than thankful tonight. We live to fight again another day.

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: Crystal Palace at the Emirates on Monday, 18th October at 8.00pm (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.

Arsenal (1) 3 AFC Wimbledon (0) 0

Carabao Cup (EFL Cup) Third Round

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Wednesday, 22nd September 2021. Kick-off time: 7.45pm

(4-3-1-2) Bernd Leno; Cédric Soares, Rob Holding, Pablo Marí, Nuno Tavares; Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Thomas Partey, Alexandre Lacazette; Albert Sambi Lokonga; Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Calum Chambers, Mohamed Elneny, Folarin Balogun, Sead Kolašinac, Karl Hein.

Scorers: Alexandre Lacazette (11 mins), Emile Smith-Rowe (77 mins), Eddie Nketiah (80 mins)

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 62%

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Assistant Referees: Lee Betts and Constantine Hatzidakis

Fourth Official: David Coote

Attendance: Attendance: 56,276

And so the third round of the Carabao Cup comes around quicker than we believed, and with it the early expectation of proceeding towards a Wembley final next year. However, as we have found out to our cost in the past, let us not run before we can walk, put such lofty thoughts away and just concentrate on the match in hand. As we know, Granit Xhaka is not available tonight as he is serving the last of a three-match ban for his red card at the Etihad Stadium just over three weeks hence, and although Mohamed Elneny’s hamstring will be assessed ahead of the game, the rest of the squad is fully fit and ready to do battle with The Dons here at the Emirates this evening.

Another match, another new starting formation, hopefully one that will be successful tonight. Thomas Partey had a good start to the match, looking confident in midfield, putting in tackles when needed and spraying balls around to the forwards. After just eleven minutes, Gabriel Martinelli was brought down in the penalty area, and the referee had no option but to point to the spot; Alexandre Lacazette made no mistake in opening the scoring for us tonight, sending the Wimbledon goalkeeper the wrong way. In the ascendancy now, we are playing confident football. Thomas Partey and Ainsley Maitland-Niles exchange a couple of one-touch passes in midfield before the latter cleverly threaded the ball through for goalscorer Alexandre Lacazette, who tried to backheel it into the path of Gabriel Martinelli but the visitors’ defence neutralised the move. Wimbledon started to come back into the match with one or two interesting moves which led to a half-hearted attempt by Luke McCormick which was easily dealt with by Gabriel Martinelli, who slumped to the ground with an injury, but thankfully it appeared to be a minor one, and he soon resumed playing after a couple of minutes, getting into the thick of the action with a superb cross into the Wimbledon penalty area for Alexandre Lacazette, which was cleared by Will Nightingale. We started to dominate the match now, and it looked like the visitors had no answers for our quick, passing play in and around the box, with Alexandre Lacazette, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Eddie Nketiah getting mighty close to scoring with their superb efforts. Gabriel Martinelli came close to scoring after clever link-up play with Alexandre Lacazette, and as half-time approached, it would have been good to grab a second goal to firm things up a bit. Then, incredibly, a Cédric Soares corner was whipped into the Wimbledon penalty area, but a defender headed it up in the air and it dropped back onto the line, where goalkeeper Nik Tzanev pushed it onto the bar, before any of our players could force it home. Incredibly, a couple of minutes later, the half-time whistle blew and how we did not manage to grab a second goal before the break was nothing short of unbelievable.

And so the second half started, with Arsenal not moving the ball around as quick as they did in the first half, but still dominating possession nonetheless. Thomas Partey and Gabriel Martinelli were linking together well tonight, and both were doing their best to unlock the Wimbledon defence. On the hour, Thomas Partey was replaced by Emile Smith-Rowe to give the lads a bit of bite for the last half hour of the match, and almost immediately he got into the game and made himself a nuisance by passing a great ball to Cédric Soares, whose right-footed shot was miraculously saved by the goalkeeper. The match started to stagnate, then Mikel Arteta sent on Bukayo Saka, who replaced a fatigued Gabriel Martinelli.and within minutes, thanks to the zest and fire of the substitutes, we grabbed our second goal of the night. Alexandre Lacazette noticed that Emile Smith-Rowe was in a predatory position, so he slotted the ball to him, and he wasted no time in scoring a superb goal from just inside the penalty area with his trusty left foot. Our confidence was on the up now, and just after Albert Sambi Lokonga’s shot was blocked by a Wimbledon defender, Cédric Soares delivered the ball to Eddie Nketiah, who made no mistake in scoring our third goal of the night from close range with a clever backheeled shot. That goal was the last act of the night for Eddie Nketiah, who was replaced by Folarin Balogun with just ten minutes of the match remaining. By now, we were doing exactly what we wanted to with clever off-the-ball movements and superb passing between the players. Literally, on the ninetieth minute, Bukayo Saka picked the ball up just inside the Wimbledon half, turned the defender, then cut inside onto his left foot and curled the ball inches wide of the far post; there was one or two efforts in injury time, but in essence, the match was over, and when referee Jarred Gillett blew the whistle for full-time, the sense of relief from the Wimbledon team was obvious. We now go on to meet Leeds United in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup at the Emirates on Wednesday, 27th October.

To be fair, the statistics of the match tell their own story. Despite one or two iffy moments, Wimbledon didn’t manage a shot on our goal, and with sixty-two percent possession, our dominance was thre for all to see. The nost important thing was that we finished the game with no injuries, and with the North London derby coming up on Sunday afternoon, we need all out players fit for the visit of Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates.

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: Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates on Sunday, 26th September at 4.30pm (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.