Arsenal will walk away as losers today despite coming up against a lacklustre Brighton side.
Our side did start the first-half in emphatic fashion, and could easily have been 3-0 up inside the opening 20 minutes, but were unfortunately unable to put away any of those clear-cut chances.
That impetus was short-lived however, as the game began to turn into somewhat of a stalemate with both sides struggling to get in behind their rivals.
The biggest incident of the opening half was watching Bernd Leno land awkwardly after a slight collision with Neal Maupay, and the German shot-stopper wasn’t shy in showing his anger with the oncoming striker whilst being stretchered off the pitch.
The second-half was more entertaining thanks to four goals, but all-in all there was little to shout home about for either side, until our opponents stole the three points…
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the first to find the back of the net, only to have his neat finish rightly ruled out for offside, but moments later we finally did break the deadlock.
Nicolas Pepe slotted home a delightful finish with just over 20 minutes remaining, but this clearly wasn’t going to be enough.
Our opponents hit-back shortly after thanks to one of many corners we had faced today, with Lewis Dunk putting the final touch away and into the net.
I was certain that Mesut Ozil and Martinelli would be installed to bring some fresh legs into the game, but it was Eddie Nketiah brought on at this point, before three very late changes on minute 87 with Tierney, Nelson and Willock brought on.
We did little inside the final third after our goal in reality, but whether to concede in the 95th minute that to Maupay is another matter.
The anger in me tells me we very much deserved to be punished for playing so badly, but the reality is Brighton were so bad as well! Our star-studded side has been downed by a dead team who didn’t show the fight of a team who were on coarse for relegation, but they can celebrate a win over a top team, and celebrate jumping out of the relegation zone… For now…
Did Brighton deserve the three points? Why was Martinelli and Ozil both overlooked again?
Patrick
