A second-half penalty from Joao Pedro earned Brighton a 1-1 draw at home to Arsenal on Saturday evening.
Both sides completely lacked the necessary language skills in a tough, heated competition. The Gunners struggled to create significant chances after Ethan Nwaneri’s 16th-minute opener, while Brighton’s hasty approach in the final third hampered them.
Pedro won and converted a penalty after the hour to ensure his side took the point, which – given the overall balance of the game – was the least they deserved.
How the game developed
While Fabian Hurzeler has struggled in recent weeks to highlight Brighton’s positive performances – rather than their points tally – Mikel Arteta needed no such mental gymnastics. The Gunners started with the bubbling confidence of a team fresh off a 12-game unbeaten run and went narrowly through Gabriel Jesus before Ethan Nwaneri broke the deadlock.
The talented Arsenal teenager showed plenty of effort on his full Premier League debut against Brentford in midweek without producing a result, but did score a deserved goal on the south coast. Nwaneri used his stronger left foot from the right side and pushed the ball under Bart Verbruggen, which would have helped his injured compatriot Bukayo Saka to a nervous finish.
Brighton felt emboldened by the deficit and enjoyed a series of forays forward on either side of the break. But the unhinged Seagulls seemed intent on finding new, increasingly creative ways to squander these briefly promising upswings.
A faulty challenge from William Saliba inadvertently ensured another Brighton attack would not come to nothing. Joao Pedro juggled the ball in a crowded penalty area and lured Arsenal’s French centre-back into an aerial attack that only hit the striker’s scalp. Brighton’s number nine tapped out to convert the penalty.
Arteta forced Martin Odegaard off the bench in the final 25 minutes but it was the hosts who came closest to taking all three points. While the Arsenal captain sputtered in the closing stages, the Seagulls continued to press. When the final whistle sounded in a sodden corner of the south coast, Brighton would have been even more disappointed with the point than the title-chasing visitors.
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Brighton’s exuberant home game was a real hit after falling behind on Saturday evening. Instead of praising their own players, the south coast crowd criticized Arsenal’s cheating.
Nwaneri was booked for wasting time in stoppage time in the first half, but rightful complaining about the laborious restarts began in the first half hour. “Boring, boring Arsenal” was an apt description of the visitors, who were only willing to venture forward when there was a corner to attack. The north London outfit recorded a pitiful record of 0.44 xG from open play on Saturday, with Saka and an in-form version of Odegaard desperately missing.
“We have to continue to be like a hammer,” Arteta urged earlier this week, “to be there every day, every day, every day.” The Gunners could do with being “there” for the entire 90 minutes of the game before they do anything Aim for something more ambitious.
It’s remarkable that a player born eight months after the Emirates Stadium opened is already tipped to be Arsenal’s next great hope. Nwaneri, making his second Premier League start in four days, showed the same feathered moves and delicate dinks that characterized his starring role against Brentford in midweek.
However, as the first half progressed on Saturday, the inevitable fatigue began to make itself felt on the sidelines of the teenager’s game. Nwaneri, like many of his teammates, had a few misses and, unlike Arsenal’s typical set-piece specialists, two unprepared corners on spin.
More for his own good than for the team, Arteta removed Nwaneri at the break. The Spanish coach recently complained that Arsenal would never be able to replicate Barcelona’s famous academy system, but it would still be wise to avoid the way in which the Catalans have chronically overused these young talents.
With his Premier League start almost a month away, the metaphorical rust that so easily appears between Jorginho’s 33-year-old limbs was clearly visible at the AMEX. The metronome at the base of midfield never matched the rhythm of the game.
Far too often, in the hour he spent stumbling around the pitch, Jorginho was robbed, mugged and bullied by the youthful hosts. Even the Italian’s typical pensive look at the referee as he appealed against a non-existent foul didn’t work for Anthony Taylor. Perhaps it will be longer than another month before Jorginho is back in action.
An Arsenal win on Saturday would have moved the Gunners to just three points behind Liverpool. Still, the frustrating stalemate means the gap could be as much as eight points if the Reds beat Manchester United on Sunday as expected. The Merseyside team will have one more game in hand after this weekend’s games.
The notion of a title race was illusory at best given the relentless nature of Liverpool’s campaign so far, but Arteta held out hope for a slip-up from Arne Slot’s side.
“If someone wins all the games, congratulate them and let’s go to next season, but if not, which has never happened in history, we will be there,” the Gunners coach recently explained. Liverpool could well suffer a dip in form over the next five months, but the idea that Arsenal could capitalize on any hypothetical slip-up seems increasingly fanciful.