Arsenal looked totally unco-ordinated during the whole of the game at Brighton and we rarely looked to threaten to score. Chances were few and far between, and Mikel Arteta sounded extremely frustrated with the performance after the game, implying that the Gunners were lucky to even come away with a point from a rainy day on the South Coast.
Arteta made it very clear he was not happy in the post-match conference: “I think it’s a point gained because I don’t think we deserved anything more than that. If we did deserve that point it’s because we defended really well the last 15/20 minutes. But in general we never felt in control of the game, we struggled to break the press and get good sequences of passes in the final third. They made it really tough for us.”
Brighton did indeed play well, considering that they finished in 16th place last season, and sold Ben White to Arsenal. Arteta agreed that Potter’s team frustrated his players. “Yes, because the way they pressed if we had made better decisions with the ball there were bigger spaces to attack and we had a real threat to do that. But we weren’t bright enough to do that and we didn’t show enough quality on those duels to break that press and then become really dangerous in open spaces.”
It certainly sounds like Arteta wants to have some very serious words with his squad before our next match against Crystal Palace after the international break, but our next three games are all at the Emirates so hopefully the home crowd will spur them on to play with a little more enthusiasm.
Well at least we are not going into this international break with a defeat under our belts, but it doesn’t sound like anyone is happy with the performance…