Brighton have deservingly beaten Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates to leave Gunners’ fans imagining the worst.
Our team went into the international break with the clear advantage in the race for the Champions League places, but two successive defeats have seen us drop to fifth in the table.
Today never really looked like it was going to be our day. We had zero luck in trying to gain control of the game, which may or may not have been down to Mikel Arteta’s selection, having decided that a midfield three of Lokonga, Odegaard and Emile Smith Rowe could deal with a packed out midfield including Yves Bissouma, with Granit Xhaka filling in at left-back for the injured Kieran Tierney.
While Martinelli was showing some bright sparks as he looked to run past players, we failed to really look in danger of scoring in the opening half hour, and when Lee Trossard was found in space in the box by Mwepu to smash the ball into the net, you got the feeling that it just wasn’t to be our day.
We did get a glimmer of hope just before the half-time whistle when Gabriel Martinelli headed home after the visitors failed to deal with our corner, but after long deliberations it was chalked of by VAR for offside, and that passionate celebration drained out of us right at the break.
I had hoped to see a fired up side emerge from the dressing room after the interval, but there wasn’t enough to make me believe that we was going to be able to get a win today.
Brighton were enjoying more than their fair share of possession, and simply looked the more dangerous in attack, and when the loose ball fell to Mwepu on the edge of the box to half-volley it home, our fate appeared to be sealed.
The boss threw on both Eddie Nketiah and Nicolas Pepe in hope of a turnaround, and we came so close to getting one on the board when Martin Odegaard smashed his free-kick off the bar, with the rebound falling to Bukayo Saka who also smashed it off the woodwork.
We did manage to pull one back on the stroke of the 90 minutes with the officials holding up six minutes on their boards to give us a glimmer of hope after the Norwegian midfielder’s long-range effort clipped off Welbeck to beat the goalkeeper, but it wasn’t to be, and to be honest, we didn’t deserve it.
Patrick