Match Report – Match Highlights – Player Ratings – Post-Match Press Conference
Final Result: Arsenal 1-1 Brighton (Havertz 37? | Joao Pedro 57?)
Arsenal XI (4-3-3): Raya; Timber (Zinchenko 80?), Saliba, Gabriel, White; Rice, Partey, Odegaard (Martinelli 74′); Trossard (Calafiori 59?), Saka, Havertz
Arsenal and Brighton came into yesterday’s game with a 100 percent record and with two extremely tough fixtures after the international break, Arsenal needed to win this game to have some momentum heading into the break. In the Brighton preview, we suspected that Mikel Arteta would retain the same squad that did very well against Aston Villa and it was the same squad we got.
Early on, Arsenal showed some good attacking impetus from the right and should have gone ahead when Martin Odegaard looped a brilliant ball for Bukayo Saka, but the Arsenal talisman fired his shot straight at Bart Verbruggen, when he could have done better. Brighton drew their own first blood when Joao Pedro whipped a cross that was headed goalward by Yankuba Minteh. David Raya made a great save and smothered the ball on the follow up.
There were more missed chances for Arsenal when Ben White sent a sumptuous cross field ball for Leandro Trossard, whose excellent cross was attacked by Odegaard, but the ball went straight at Verbruggen. If the Arsenal captain found any of the corners, Arsenal would have probably gone ahead. After both sides continued to trade punches, Arsenal got the lead after Saka reacted well to a Lewis Dunk gaffe to dink the ball into space for Kai Havertz. With Verbruggen rushing out to close Havertz down, the German schemer intelligently lobbed the ball over the Dutch goalie to make it 1-0.
Arsenal went into the break with a well-deserved lead but the game was turned on its head when Declan Rice received his first red card in 245 Premier League games. In the buildup to the incident, Rice, who already was a booking, fouled Joel Veltman, and the ref blew for a free kick. When Veltman wanted to punt the ball, Rice kicked the ball away, causing the defender to scythe him down. The ref got on scene and brandished a second yellow card to the Arsenal midfielder for his role in that passage of play. As harsh as the incident was, Rice should take the blame for his petulance on an incident that was never meant to happen in the first place. He apologized to his teammates after the game, but the bigger impact is the fact that he would miss the North London Derby after the break.
As expected, a team as strong as Brighton took advantage of the numbers when Dunk threaded a brilliant pass to a position where Rice or Thomas Partey should have been to Minteh, who wasn’t tackled well by Gabriel. The Gambian midfielder blasted a shot that was parried by Raya but Joao Pedro was on hand to smash in the rebound to level the contest. Arteta responded to conceding by summoning Riccardo Calafiori for Trossard, switching to 5-3-1, however, I felt he should have gone to this formation immediately after the red card to protect the win at all costs. We were faced with the same situation when Takehiro Tomiyasu received a red card for two bookable offenses at Selhurst Park last season, and went into Satanball on time.
There were a couple of half chances for Brighton with Raya diving well to make a save from Ayari, but Arsenal had two big chances that should have won the game for the home side. Havertz fashioned a great chance for himself, wrestling through Jan Paul van Hecke, but he didn’t compose himself enough, or was probably off balance when he fired his shot, but Verbruggen made a great stop. The best chance arrived when Havertz went to the byline and drilled a cut back for Saka but he didn’t connect well with the ball and the good chance went begging.
At the end of the ref’s whistle, a draw was a fair result in the grand scale of things, but Arteta and some of the players bemoaned the lack of consistency from the referee, which was actually a fair point, as there was a period in the match where Joao Pedro blasted the ball away in anger when it went out of the line, but there was no punishment.
With Manchester City’s win over West Ham later on the night, Arsenal is back on the chasing pack. This wasn’t the result the players wanted but the lads still showed great character to hold out for a draw.
Sayonara.
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