Arsenal bounced back after two defeats to take the three points off Burnley on Saturday, but after losing to Southampton on our last visit to the South Coast we are now going back down to face Brighton on Boxing Day. The Seagulls are doing much better than expected this season after starting the campaign as one of the favourites for relegation, and are comfortably placed in mid-table.
This has mostly been due to their home form where they beat Man United earlier on in the season, and have won 3 and drawn one of their last 5 at the Amex Stadium, beating the likes of West Ham, Wolves and Palace and drawing with Leicester. That run was arrested when Chelsea came to visit and left with a close 2-1 win, but that hasn’t dented the Seagull’s confidence. Their defender Leon Balogun told the Standard after the game: “We are always very confident when we play at home and I think that the whole performance today just showed everyone why,”
“We really gave Chelsea a struggle and a hard time. It wasn’t an easy game for them to just carry away those three points, we gave them gifts.
“So, I think, we definitely can be very confident about playing against Arsenal at home.”
Brighton will have been encouraged by our defeat at Southampton and our defensive worries are also a big problem, but we really can’t afford to drop points after closing the gap to Chelsea this weekend….
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