We all knew that Mikel Arteta would be making changes, but i was surprised to see TEN changes from the weekend, with only William Saliba keeping his place, and there must be a problem with Turner as the youngster Karl Hein was in goal.
So Brighton started off more settled and the first 20 mins they were looking dangerous, but suddenly Reiss Nelson burst through the Brighton midfield and found Nketiah who finished it perfectly in the top corner.
Our lead didn’t last long though, as 5 minutes later Karl Hein made a booby and fouled Danny Welbeck in the box. And our old boy converted it well. 1-1.
The game carried on end to end, with Nelson looking particularly good for us, but we got to the break still all level.
Arsenal started the second half brightly with Eddie hitting the post, Nelson came close with his head and Lokonga is having a go as well in this half, here is Eddie’s Unlucky strike..
Then disaster as Mitoma puts Brighton ahead again from a very fast counter-attack.
Arteta responds by putting on Martinelli in place of Marquinhos…
But it didn’t do much good, as ten minutes later Lamptey got on the scoreboard with Brighton’s third, and Mikel Arteta is looking very worried and throws another couple of big guns on, with Tierney and Vieira off and Jesus and Zinchenko will have to work miracles in the last 30 minutes but Brighton continue piling on the pressure.
The only good news I’ve got is that the Spuds are 2-0 down to Nottm Forest!
With ten minutes to go Arteta also brings on Xhaka for Lokonga, but surely its too late now….
Martinelli had a go but just shot at the keeper, and soon after Holding had a header saved.
Once we saw there was five minutes added time, it didn’t suddenly give us hope, and we limped through to the final whistle.
What a disappointing night!