Arsenal were perhaps fortunate to escape from the Amex with a point after Brighton dominated the game in terms of chances and possession, but a clean sheet and that aforementioned point is at least something to take back to North London.
Mikel Arteta’s side never really got going on the night, too many ‘senior’ players were off the pace, but there was real defensive commitment with Ben White impressive on his return to his former club who, it’s fair to say, played well on the night.
It means three wins and a draw from our last four, you can’t win them all, and we now go into the Interlull to regroup a bit.
Read the Brighton 0-0 Arsenal match report
Brighton 0-0 Arsenal – Player Ratings
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Interesting game. One of those ones most of the east through you really wanted a win, but you’d be happy with a draw, as it ended. Thought both teams were even and Brighton are good. Forwards let us down a bit. ESR hung Saka out to dry bad and auba was not good. Otherwise solid point. Can’t complain. Was worried moss was going to fuck us though…
Thought both teams were even?? 😳
Jesus!!!
What you thought Brighton were a lot better?
Actually they were as they dominated most of the game.
Yes
3W 3L 1D.
So midtable it is
Say what you will, but we’re a different side without Xhaka. I’ll pin it down to lacking depth in that position as I will to Xhaka’s quality, for me Lokonga just doesn’t cut it right now, looked well out of place, especially in the first half where his positional cluelessness could’ve cost us a few goals, and his poor choice of balls in transition helped keep us on the backfoot. It could be a tough few months for Arsenal, and a lot of struggle to win the midfield battles, if we couldn’t do it today against a Brighton without Bissouma,… Read more »
As much as I will to Xhaka’s quality*
You had to repeat that nonsensical tautology?
Its down to the tactical selection. Having a left back always at the further end doesn’t help. This has exposed us a lot when we were not able to attack. Look at Tierney at time, he was trying to reposition himself. A LB played more of a LM and a CM played like a LWB…wasn’t it an improper tactical arrangement?
We’ve had plenty of games like that with Xhaka in the team and I don’t think he would have made a big difference for us today. This is a classic example of a player looking better than they are when the team struggles in their absence. And Lokonga looked a lot better in the second half.
Lokonga looked to he’s not ready. Partey looked like he needed xhaka.
My nerves would not have survived Xhaka lunging in on that swamp of a pitch… red waiting to happen!
The team needs to move on from Xhaxa he is the most important player but that is the problem.We have played worse and we have played much better with him in the side. What is clear is that he isn’t the answer to get us over 8th.
The problem isn’t xhaka, the problem is we’ve no better option.
Am I the only one feeling this way?
Cos I thought Sambi had a decent game.
He probably did not pass it that well (bar that through ball to Aubu), but he he done a good job defensively, intercepting play, tackling and winning back ball
You’re not alone. Thing to remember is that this is a very young and somewhat inexperienced team. Inconsistency is likely to remain and for some people to criticise Arteta every time a performance is not spot on is not helpful to anyone.
Agree, I thought he did a good job defensively, especially in the second half.
We are a mid-table team at best with Arteta. We spend all this money on players but we have an average at best manager. We can keep adding talent to our squad but we are limited by the tactics of Arteta. Lucky to get a draw today tbh.
That wasn’t a problem of tactics old son. You just don’t like MA8 do you?
like it or not, when did ever Arteta effectively changed anything in-game that would help us turn the play? FFS they saw us through rather quickly and as of 15th minute ALWAYS had 5 players at the edge of our box when we had a goal kick. Not a single time for roughly 80 minutes did we try to play it out. Tierney looked lost in his position like Lokonga as well and only on rare ocassions did we look like a team that had an idea how to play attacking footbal. It is definitelly not down to the lack… Read more »
So what was it? Care to explain??????
Obviously he’s blaming the players. Who else could be to blame? Trump the Taliban, global forces?.
Exactly, our players weren’t good enough. Nothing to do with tactics.
We’re the youngest team in the PL. We are not going to be consistent in end product, but if we are consistent in effort at the back we will be in every game.
Exactly, they all want the young players to play. This is how it looks.
Brentford beat us with a younger starting XI that also had debutants and starters missing.
Please let’s stop excusing mediocrity. Midtable is Arteta’s ceiling.
It was a good game in perspective to see that we’re still midtable
Not a game to be remembered for long!
The kind of game you’d want Auba to win for you with a fine piece of individual skill, but instead he snatched on the best chance we had in the game and generally looked to be lacking sharpness today… not the worst result overall but definitely a disappointing one.
I thought Laca looked more effective and sharp when he came on. My main issue today is probably that Arteta didn’t mix it up sooner given some were having an off day.
Got voted down for saying our stars looked off the boil.
Auba should of been hooked for Pepe ( the front runner who was doing little defensively but could break at pace role)
and I thought laca deserved more, he drew defenders and hardly lost the ball.
overall a point earned through grit, and 2 points lost through complacency?
Two points lost on paper, but in reality, sadly, one point gained.
Yes, we’ve been complacent in making most of some opportunities, but if you say that about us, then what could you say about Brighton who were well on top of this game overall?
Think Arteta got his selection wrong for the type of game this was going to be. Which is easy to say in hindsight but i would not have started Auba and changed at least one of the attacking 3.
So in a game where the opponent presses high and leaves a lot of space in behind you believe starting Auba was the wrong choice?
Agree re Auba and their high line. I’m looking forward to playing them again later in the season – I bet we’ll perform much better against them at the Emirates.
He picked the team everyone has been wanting from the start of the season. Today’s game isn’t on arteta. Maybe the players aren’t as good as everyone thinks?.
Or maybe the new faces might need just a game or two to play together, which would equate to maybe 1/50th the chances some have been provided. You’re really quite desperate to see project youth fail
Not at all, been an arsenal fan since 1975. What bothers me is internet experts hate watching their own team to prove their own stupid narrative right. Xhaka didn’t play today, he’s out for 3 months. Give it a fucking rest.
Personally I think it’s reasonable to debate the merits of different strategies and lineups and for people to weigh in on who they think would be best in each position – whether or not a player is out injured.
I assume we all expect that he’ll be back later in the season so I’m not sure I see the issue with discussing him now compared with discussing him later when he’s back. When we talk about who would be better in what position, we’re talking in hypotheticals and conjecturing anyway. Just some interesting conversation isn’t it?
Youre the one obsessing over xhaka on every part here when people are trying to support a young player, that like many have said had a pretty good game, particularly defensively. It’s going to take a while to build connections. You just want no time given to prove your “own stupid narrative right”.
A week ago everyone was saying we had a squad full of wonder kids and after one draw people are doubting whether they’re good enough. I don’t think it’s warranted to make any conclusions about that after this game. I wasn’t there but it looked very windy and wet, which could have contributed to a lot of the waywardness of our high/long balls. (Sure you could say they should be good enough to compensate for the weather but it’s easier said than done…) MO wasn’t having a good time of it, it was a good tactical change to put ESR… Read more »
Great comment. Particularly the point on making Sambi just slot right into Xhaka’s role. Sambi is very clearly a different player, we need to find the right balance now that suits his skillset, not just ask him to be Xhaka 2.0.
That is the task now and the challenge on Arteta’s plate, finding the right balance and connections. Will take a little time, but it is absolutely going to take some adjustments tactically too.
twitter isnt everyone.
A lot of people on here seem to be swayed by it though.
Only decent performances were from ESR, Saka and Ramsdale. Others need to raise their game.
I’d exchange Saka for Gabriel on that list…
Ramsdale didn’t wow me either today, despite me liking him. Great save late on, but he should’ve done better than to spill that ball in the first half even if under some pressure, plus he looked quite rattled and shaky on the ball for 5 minutes or so after that.
Your average 6.5 for me.
Thanks that is better than a lot of the players 🙂
Gabriel was our best player and is beginning to look like the real deal, White was good, Smith Rowe was very good, and for me Saka was a little better than Blogs thought. Odegaard, who I like a lot, was really off; Partey was really inconsistent. Pepe (especially) and Laca both did pretty well when they came on.
Maybe all we needed was CB turned striker Dinos Mavropanos
https://twitter.com/ChrisWheatley_/status/1444329124584120327?s=20
Oh no longer available – in short, he scored a cracker.
IMO a bit harsh on Saka, especially given his first half performance, but he does look like he’s struggling physically this season. And maybe a bit generous on Ødegaard, he really struggled today, arguably his worst game for us.
They should definitely do an option where you can watch the game with just the stadium sound, and no commentary
I watched in French. Magnifique.
On the positive side I didn’t have the constant dread we were gonna concede a poor goal, defense looked solid again although we gave them far too many chances.
Wouldn’t say there wasn’t a little arse clenching. Some close calls, but we had our fair number of chances too. We were pretty average (and that’s generous) going forward.
I DID have a constant dread that we were going to concede a poor goal(s)! Defense played decent defense but could not keep the ball out of the area of the goal.
What a difference a week makes. Everyone bar ESR looked like they were out drinking till about 4 in the morning.
The Tuesday club may have been reformed, eh?
Thought having no Europe would make a difference.
Brighton just wanted it more & were better organised. Much better press & sharper all over the pitch, just no end product.
Auba was bloody awful today, couldn’t control the ball at all. I don’t get why Laca doesn’t start these gritty games. We were much better when he came on.
I’d have taken your arm off for 0-0 at half time. That says it all.
I’m just praying that Potter doesn’t end up at them pricks up the road 🙏
That has been my prayer since they started flirting with him in the summer. He is obviously a great coach.
I remember that Ostersaands (?) side he coached that beat us at the Emirates. Hes been impressive, i have seen Brighton play better teams than us off the park..But not have the players at the top end to finish their good work. At this point in the season and where we are i think its a good point.
Östersund is dead last and most probably relegated from the swedish top league this year. He did wonders with a bang average squad there.
Lacazette was the correct striker for this fixture. Seemed at times like Aubameyang was playing with crocs ffs.
Like a fish up a tree
Auba went from the King Henry slide to wearing crocs.
I thought Martinelli could have done a job tonight instead of AMN…..
Thoughts?
That was a weird sub… You see from his comments Arteta just didn’t want to lose, so at least he’s being consistent.
I think if we aggressively went for it in the last 10-20 min (which would have been the case if we put on Gabi instead of AMN) and ended up losing there would be mayhem/uproar. We were weak in the midfield today so I thought it was reasonable to sure up with AMN rather than make it more open by bringing on Gabi. Sometimes it’s better to make sure we come away with at least a point and try for three than going for three and risk getting none – I think this game was one of those times. (Counterargument… Read more »
I kinda feel like maybe I was watching a different game with respect to the defender ratings. I thought the defense defended well. We did struggle to pass out from the back, but I think that was more down to the rest of the team not providing good outlets.
Yeah, both CBs were good. But Tomi and KT were really poor on the ball.
Yes, but I thought even those two defended well. Tomi was under intense pressure and didn’t crack. When he had the ball not sure the rest of the team was helping him enough.
Thought the CBs were solid as well. Very impressed.
Would take that point and cs. We would have easily lose the game usually. Feel Laca should have come in earlier, he held up the ball better.ESR and Ramsdale did well. I would let the team and Arteta think over this and move on.
I keep saying this but no one agrees with me so fck it but Laca is the better center forward. Auba is better playing off him drifting in from the left. When those 2 were banging in goals 2-3 seasons ago that’s how they lined up every match.
Thoug%t we’d start with an extra attacker like a laca or martinelli
Martinelli is going to get frustrated very soon at his lack of minutes.
On the golf course, Thomas Partey drives 6 foot putts into the bunker.
Ever play championship manager, you can instruct the players individually whether to take long shots, you wouldn’t let Partey shoot from range. Who let him take that free kick?
Long range shooting is speculative statistically at the best of times, some managers frown on it.
That ”shoot” cry from the fans will become ”dont, shoot” when Partey is around the box. Guarantee he scores two screamers this season though, with the rest of his strikes becoming souvenirs for the fans.
I’m delighted with a point tbh. Really tough game against an in form team in awful conditions. Bank the point and move on.
Perfectly put.
Can’t argue with that. But we still have a lot to improve before we can put away a team like Brighton who are very well coached.
Thomas Partey some said we signed the new Vieira, it’s looking increasingly like we signed the new John Jensen. I was ducking behind the sofa such was his shooting. Someone’s gonna get hurt brother, at least we had that Mural at Highbury in those days. 98 games for john it took by the way. Still got the t shirt.
Ha ha. I have the t-shirt too. Shame we lost 3-1 🙁
To be fair he played like vista last week…fck knows what happened today.
He did indeed, we have a rich history of players and characters to make comparisons. All fondly remembered and much loved.
^viera
I couldn’t watch the game, had to travel. I thought will watch the replay- not sure now if it’s worth watching.
Don’t bother – unless you need more sleep!
Reality check
Shows how shit Spurs are.
They gave us the freedom of North London.
Very complacent display but a few positives and an away draw and clean sheet to an inform Brighton side isn’t so bad. But arteta needs to refresh the team a bit and perhaps rest saka for Pepe, and auba for laca.
Maybe he should have made the changes earlier, hut he would have taken a lot of stick changing a team that won in such style last week. As Tony Adams said last week he needs to get a settled side build relationships and partnerships and go from there. The injury to Xhaka had led to a drop in the technical level of the team perhaps Martinelli or Pepe could have been accommodated from the start instead of the lost looking Lokonga in a 4-1-4-1 with Partey as the sole deep anchor and not finding himself so many times shooting 30-35… Read more »
ozil was garbage 2-3 seasons before people actually realized he was done and stopped defending him on the comments section. pepe’s never been any good and yet people defend him as if he was anything else than a mediocre fusion between gervinho and iwobi. in a game against a very tenacious and determined opposition we threw a guy who always looks like he’s got nothing to do with what’s happening on the pitch. it was really shameful, to my eyes he’s the worse player we have.
Pepe better than Auba I’d say.
Lol. What game were you watching?!? Off to the opticians son, Pepe was our only bright spark in the second half…
played 30 minutes, 0 shots, 0 successful dribbles, 8 passes. probably a different game than you, dad!
just looked at the chart: 3 forward passes in 30 minutes. what a bright spark dad, cheers!
There aren’t too many players in the world that can singlehandedly change the course of a team in a game – I think the most you can reasonably ask of the majority of players (like other than Zidane back in the day!) is to help make the players around them play better and make a positive impact. But generally they need the rest of team to play well too. I thought Pepe looked hungry and helped out defensively as well. I disagree that he looked like he had nothing to do with what was happening – as soon as he… Read more »
i didn’t rate his defensive efforts very highly, in fact i remember feeling disgusted by the way he was marking his man at defensive corners where ramsdale was getting bullied like if pepe wasn’t there, though probably it wasn’t the best tactical decision to make him mark their biggest player. in any case mine was a complaint that goes beyond this game, but it is interesting to read someone else’s different thoughts and not just a thumbs down. cheers!
Neither Gervinho or Iwobi could put the ball anywhere near the net so that’s a terrible comparison.
how many goals has he scored for us this season again? did you know he had only 3 forward passes in 30 minutes yesterday? none of them anywhere near the net… if you seriously think there’s any difference please show it to me so i can change my mind!
An awful game in torrid conditions. Brighton were good we were not. Auba was shocking today. ESR excellent again and our best player so far this season. I hope Partey never shoots again…never! I’ll take a point.
I think this is the kind of game where it’s easy to be critical, and some of those ratings definitely are, but we have to factor in Brighton’s aggression in closing the space and they’re just so much futher along in terms of how they play and being familiar with that system. Good defensive shift from Partey and Lokonga, did ESR miss the chance to play in Saka 1v1?? Did he think the was too obvious?? Anyway 3pts would have felt like robbery
Despite all the tallk of pulling together, togetherness and all this mambo jambo, we’re still a pretty spineless team who only play well when all things click nicely together. Only two examples late in the game, Pepe try to hold the vall by the line with some fancy moves and Brighton just push hin away and take the ball. In the 93rd the ball fall to a BHA player in midfield , Partey and Sambi just stand there and let him get control and create a dangerous moment. Partey was a disgrace, it looks like he want to go back… Read more »
They’re still finding their feet… as others have said, let’s take the point and move on from this one.
Saying a player is a disgrace after a poor performance sounds harsh to me.
Spineless is also a bit of a harsh characterisation – we could have lost this game but held on with good defensive performances, a good save, and some luck.
As good as he is for us I think we’ve got a small problem with KT, he’s got no compousure in our defensive 3rd with the ball. He just lumps it up the pitch over and over.
If we’re wanting to keep the ball he has to stop settling for a hopeful clearance all the time.
He’s off form. Maybe rest him for the next few games and give Tavares a run.
Blogs, you are one of my favourite humans on earth but 4.5 for Aubameyang? 3 would have been generous!
But we should have had this forward passes without Xhaka. This is absolutely not possible
A striker that is a quicker version of laca is a top priority this summer. Tierney has been disappointing all season.
I remember when we were looking for a quicker version of Giroud and found Laca. Not making any particular point other than I liked it when Giroud was here!
Like Saka, Tierney is probably bone tired but would never admit it. Wish both fellas could skip the international break and have 2 weeks of lie-ins!
International break then a warm welcome back to the Emirates for old friend Patrick.
Who remembers the words?
🎤 Vieira…
It’s borderline amusing to listen to Arsenal fans pretend they’re disappointed with an away point against a side occupying one of the European slots we can only dream about. Brighton completely outplayed Arsenal throughout and as things stand, are the superior team with a superior manager who gets more than Arteta does out of a group of players with considerably less ability. This is also true for Unai Emery to a certain extent