By 90min | Created at 2025-01-04 20:05:27 | Updated at 2025-01-06 18:58:36
1 day ago
A second-half penalty from Joao Pedro earned Brighton a 1-1 draw at home to Arsenal on Saturday evening.
Both sides desperately lacked fluency in a bitty, fractious contest. The Gunners struggled to create any significant openings after Ethan Nwaneri's 16th-minute opener, while Brighton were hampered by their own hurried approach in the final third.
Pedro won and dispatched a penalty on the hour mark to ensure that his side earned the point which - based on the overall balance of play - was the least they deserved.
How the game unfolded
While Fabian Hurzeler was at pains to point out the positives of Brighton's performances - rather than their points tally - in recent weeks, Mikel Arteta needed no such mental gymnastics. The Gunners started with the bubbling confidence of a side fresh from a 12-game unbeaten run, going close through Gabriel Jesus before Ethan Nwaneri broke the deadlock.
Arsenal's prodigious teenager provided plenty of endeavour without any end-product on his full Premier League debut against Brentford in midweek, but got a deserved goal on the south coast. Cutting on to his stronger left foot from the right flank, Nwaneri slid the ball underneath Bart Verbruggen with a nerveless finish his injured compatriot, Bukayo Saka, would have been pleased with.
Brighton were emboldened by falling behind, enjoying a flurry of forward forays on either side of the interval. Yet, the out-of-sorts Seagulls seemed intent on finding new, increasingly creative ways, to squander these briefly promising surges.
An errant challenge from William Saliba inadvertently ensured that another Brighton attack would not fizzle out. Joao Pedro juggled the ball inside a crowded penalty area, tempting Arsenal's French centre-back into an aerial challenge which saw him connect exclusively with the striker's scalp. Brighton's number nine dusted himself down to convert the spot-kick.
Arteta ushered Martin Odegaard off the bench for the final 25 minutes, but it was the hosts who came closest to snatching all three points. While Arsenal's skipper stuttered through the closing stages, the Seagulls kept on pushing. By the time the final whistle sounded on a sodden corner of the south coast, Brighton would have been more disappointed with the point than their title-chasing visitors.
Check out player ratings from Brighton vs Arsenal here.
Arsenal made to pay for passivity
Mikel Arteta watched his side struggle against Brighton / Bryn Lennon/GettyImages
Brighton's boisterous home ground rattled through the song book after falling behind on Saturday night. Rather than hail their own players, the south coast crowd lambasted Arsenal's skulduggery.
Nwaneri was booked for time-wasting in first-half stoppage time, but the justified moans regarding the laborious restarts had begun inside the opening half-hour. "Boring, boring Arsenal" was a fair description of the visitors, who were only willing to venture forward when there was a corner to attack. The north London outfit registered a pitiful tally of 0.44 xG from open play on Saturday, desperately missing Saka and an in-form version of Odegaard.
"We have to continue to be like a hammer," Arteta demanded earlier this week, "be there every day, every day, every day." The Gunners could do with being "there" for all 90 minutes of match before setting their sights on anything more ambitious.
Ethan Nwaneri opened the scoring on Saturday / GLYN KIRK/GettyImages
It's remarkable to think that a player born eight months after the Emirates Stadium was opened has already been upheld as Arsenal's next great hope. Making his second Premier League start in the space of four days, Nwaneri was full of the same feathered flicks and dainty dinks which peppered his starring role against Brentford in midweek.
However, the inevitable grip of fatigue began to creep into the fringes of the teenager's game as Saturday's first half wore on. Nwaneri - much like many of his teammates - was guilty of some loose touches and, unlike Arsenal's typical set-piece specialists, took two undercooked corners on the spin.
For his own sake more than the team's, Arteta removed Nwaneri at the interval. The Spanish boss has recently lamented how Arsenal would never be able to replicate Barcelona's famed academy system, yet they would be wise to avoid the way that the Catalans had chronically overplayed those young gems.
Jorginho's shaky return
Jorginho spent more time than he would have liked on the deck / GLYN KIRK/GettyImages
Making his Premier League start in almost a month, the metaphorical rust that so readily appears between Jorginho's 33-year-old limbs was evident at the AMEX. The metronome at the base of midfield never matched the game's rhythm.
On far too many occasions throughout the hour he spent trundling around the pitch, Jorginho was robbed, mugged and bullied by the youthful hosts. Even the Italian's trademark pensive look to the referee when appealing a non-existent foul failed to work on Anthony Taylor. Perhaps it may be longer than another month before Jorginho is called upon again.
Mikel Arteta watched his side slip up in the rain on Saturday / Mike Hewitt/GettyImages
A win for Arsenal on Saturday would have lifted the Gunners just three points behind Liverpool. Yet, the frustrating stalemate ensures that the gap could be as wide as eight points if the Reds defeat Manchester United on Sunday as expected. The Merseyside outfit will still have a game in hand after the weekend's matches.
The notion of a title race was spurious at best given the unrelenting manner of Liverpool's campaign thus far, but Arteta held out hope of a slip-up from Arne Slot's side.
"If someone wins all the matches, congratulate them and let's go to the next season but, if they don't, which, in history, hasn't happened, we'll be there," the Gunners boss recently declared. Liverpool may very well suffer a dip in form over the next five months, but the idea that Arsenal will be able to capitalise upon any hypothetical slip up looks increasingly fanciful.
