Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, Jorginho, Odegaard, Saka, Jesus, Havertz
Subs: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, Partey, Smith Rowe, Vieira, Trossard, Martinelli, Nketiah
Arsenal returned to the top of the Premier League table with a confident 3-0 win over Brighton courtesy of Bukayo Saka’s penalty and second half strikes by Kai Havertz and substitute Leandro Trossard.
The Gunners were good value for their victory defending with discipline from start to finish and taking their chances when it mattered. Given this was Brighton’s first home defeat in the league since August, they came through a difficult assignment convincingly.
Pre-game
Mikel Arteta made four changes from the side that started against Luton on Tuesday. Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus returned to the attack at the expense of Reiss Nelson and Leandro Trossard while Declan Rice and Jorginho took over in midfield from Thomas Partey and Emile Smith Rowe.
First Half
It didn’t take long for Arsenal to test the nerves of the home side. After Kai Havertz was fouled up the pitch in the first minute, the Gunners piled men into the box in anticipation of Martin Odegaard’s free-kick. When it was delivered, Gabriel rose unchallenged at the near post but could only head wide. It was a golden chance and judging by the look on his face the Brazilian knew it.
Despite the early scare, Brighton looked typically slick in their build-up play and didn’t take long to fashion a couple of opportunities. Julio Enciso fired over from the edge of the box before Jakub Moder screwed wide of Raya’s post.
The game had a real end-to-end feel and Arsenal didn’t waste any time pushing the home side back. Jorginho fed White who found Saka behind the defence only for the winger to curl just wide. Teh England international was involved again a minute later, this time teeing up Jesus who stung the palms of keeper Bart Verbruggen from the edge of the box. The Brazilian then had an even better chance to break the deadlock but headed Havertz’s cross wide.
Brighton continued to press high up the pitch often looking for Simon Adingra on the break but the Gunners showed real maturity sweeping up loose balls and keeping possession in deep areas.
Eventually, Arsenal’s pressure told. Gabriel Jesus collected the ball out on the left, darted into the box and drew a foul from Lamptey. Referee John Brooks had no qualms pointing to the spot and VAR didn’t take long to agree. Bukayo Saka stepped up and sent Verbruggen the wrong way. Even if the Dutchman had gone the right way, he’d never have got to it. It was Saka’s fifth successful penalty of the season and 17th goal in total. (GOAL 1-0)
While Enciso drew a fine save from Raya with a curler destined for the top corner,, the Gunners had more of the ball and looked the more likely to add to the scoreline. During seven minutes of stoppage time Havertz came desperately close to adding a second when he took advantage of some dallying by Dunk to toe-poke a bouncing throw-in just past Verbruggen but wide. A couple of cutbacks, worked after intricate play down the right, also caused havoc before the players went off for their oranges.
Second Half
A loose ball by Jesus allowed Enciso an early opportunity to test Raya from range – his shot went straight at the Spaniard – before Jesus went down the other end and headed wide.
Odegaard and Jesus had further half chances but Brighton, fuelled by a sense of injustice in the stands at some of the officiating, continued to pile forward. They clearly sensed a weakness in Zinchenko and regularly looked for Adingra to run at the Ukrainian. To be fair, the full-back held his nerve.
It was tense and tetchy as the game ticked past the hour mark, everyone in the ground knowing the next goal could be decisive. It was the Gunners who got it. While Saka was on the deck, Jorginho intercepted a Brighton ball out from the back, White and Odegaard then exchanged passes to release the Italian who found Havertz at the near post to tap home. It was beautifully clinical and sent the away end into raptures. (GOAL 2-0)
In the immediate aftermath,, De Zerbi and Arteta exchanged a brace of substitutions. Enciso and Moder made way for Joao Pedro and Facundo Buonanotte while Saka and Jesus were replaced by Martinelli and Trossard. The Belgian, booed by the home fans on his return to the Amex, almost immediately forced Verbruggen into a save with a low drive.
Keep a clean sheet and Arsenal knew the game was won so it was little surprise to see Tomiyasu introduced for Zinchenko with 18 minutes remaining. As Brighton pushed forward, we had no issue taking the pace out of the game, sitting deep in numbers, winning fouls whenever we broke forward and often just lumping the ball forward to nobody in particular.
It wasn’t very pretty but it was effective. When the opportunity to kill things off arose, we took it. As the home side committed numbers forward, Trossard snatched the ball, gave it to Havertz and raced forward to collect the German’s pass. The Belgian had an age to weigh up his finish before producing a sumptuous chip that rolled into the net. (GOAL 3-0)
Rice and Gabriel Magalhaes both had chances to add a fourth in the closing stages, as did Eddie Nketiah who came on for Havertz at the end.
All in all, this was a fantastic performance by the boys who’ll get plenty of plaudits before attention turns to the Champions League.
Marvellous
Clinical. Just say back and said you cannot score on us… Here have the ball, have a go. You can’t!
That seemed so deliberate (to play without the ball) I’m tempted to think they purposefully used the last 20 minutes as a training routine for Bayern… lol
Arteta has built a monster.
Bayern are probably gonna sit back in the 1st leg, just my hunch. They’re very low on confidence and just lost 3-2 to a newly promoted team after leading 2-0.
If they sit back, they are in big trouble. Bayern are not built to sit back and defend.
Watching the last 20mins or so, I was laughing to myself thinking, look at them huffing and puffing while we sit back and saying give us your best. And they had zero shots at all. Couldn’t even get into our box. It was absolutely marvelous. Was even funnier when Trossard went the other way and showed them how it’s done. I love this team. Amazing stuff. COYG! On other news, I’m mad Tuchel’s Bayern lost to some lowly team 3-2 after being 2 nil. They my fire mickeymouse before we face his shambolic team. We’ve got to smash them and… Read more »
Reminds me of serie a in the 90s. They’ve turned defending into art. That was incredible to watch.
Great performance. You just never feel doubt with Trossard in front of goal!
For me, he is one of only TWO people who can finish like that in the team. Him and Martinelli are GREAT finishers. Brilliant goal, that.
Saka and Odegaard aren’t too bad either…
He’s a reverse Gabi Jesus in many ways.
That’s the most enjoyable win for me in recent times. I don’t even know why.
Perhaps it’s the remnant of last season’s defeat, perhaps it’s because this is suppose to be a tough fixture, perhaps it’s the nonsense boos from their fans…
Just so professional
Perhaps it’s because shitty won earlier, perhaps because they always aren’t giving us a chance, perhaps because……….. either way it’s massive
Shitty 💩💩💩! Indeed!
Perhaps it’s because we are just awesome!
It was the feint before the finish that did it for me, lovely stuff!
Just brilliant! Absolutely brilliant.
My word, we are fcking good!
xG for Brighton was -0.2. they were more of a threat before kickoff…
Best team in the fucking league
Best team in the world right now.
Absolutely amazing. I love this team.
We are better than City. We are better than Liverpool. I think we’re better than Bayern as well.
We are sure better than City and Liverpool. Whatever happened on that winter break to spark this transformation has put the rest of the league in peril. Because it looks like we are going to be a menace for a long while to come!
We are ruling the EPL for the next 3 decades.
We are
As my wife just said to me ‘you’re top of the leaderboard!’.
Indeed we are, indeed we are.
Girls eh
de Zerbi learned from the 2-0 blowout (that’s what it was) in December and started as many of his best athletes today as he could muster. He also surprised us in the first 10 minutes with Moder’s movement. They used him as a decoy to drag Big Gabi out of position and used that gap plus the incredibly rapid combination of Adingra/Lamptey to get up the left side a couple of times. Or if Gabi didn’t follow him then he became the spare man, but generally Gabi did track him to his own penalty box even. Arsenal shut that down… Read more »
You justify your name, Doc. Nice summary. My bitesize summary is – we’re fucking wicked and Brighton couldn’t live with us 🙂
Decent read, cheers Doc.
Arteta! Is that you?
Your reading of the game is phenomenal.
Such a cold efficient ruthless performance! This is the best team by miles in the league!
It’s borderline criminal we do not have a song for Trossard yet!
He is absolute clutch, not to mention Porto.
When he was booed on, I was hoping we had a comeback to drown out those Brighton Muppets.
Enjoyed how he sort of mildly celebrated. Not so much that it would’ve been classless, but just enough to stick it to the Brighton fans who booed him on.
* classlessly over-celebrating against your former team otherwise known as “the Adebayor”
Yeh, noticed it “All went quiet over there” – older Gooners will remember the chant 😜
Repurpose Sanchez’s:
🎶
Leandro Trossard, baby!
Leandro Trossard, ooohhh!🎶
Errrrr…… No.
For reference, similar finish https://youtu.be/odOrzHMDXZ0?si=_COtAbSl1K9Il9Ma
That was as commanding a performance as it can ever be. Attacking and defending masterclass from the gunners at a tricky place. It was men against boys stuff at times.
One potential banana skin scaled with minimum fuss.
Bring on the floundering Bayern! Payback time.
COYG!!!
Very optimistic this is ending great.COYG
Havertz’s stamina is underrated
Yeah he’s a heck of an athlete. Work rate, stamina, strength and durability. He doesn’t look it at first glance but physically he’s a complete package.
Tracking back on one of their counter attacks and making a tackle on the edge of the box. Magic commitment.
He’s Peter Crouch’s cousin.😀
A difficult first 10, we worked our way into control. Too many passes between forwards imo and the penalty was a welcome boost. Totally controlled /managed the 2nd .
Zinchenko remains a liability but Havertz continues to get better and better.
We are suffocating teams
“Sixty million down the drain…”
An excellent away performance in a potential banana skin game.
We dominated from start to finish and probably should have had the game won by half time. Second half we were a bit sloppy in midfield but absolutely rock-solid at the back. Brighton never looked like scoring.
Happy for Trossard: he should have given the Brighton fans the finger after scoring.
Havertz rightly MOTM but the two giants at the back were awesome again.
Bring on Bayern!
Worked us hard at the start but a wonderful result at least one goal beyond what I would have hoped for.
Jeez, I am speechless! This team is so good, even fatso is singing praises
3 points. 3 goals. Clean sheet. White & Trossard giving it to the home fans. I cannot ask for any more. Thank you Arsenal. And that Gabi Magalhaes celebrating a late block on Pedro’s shot – chef’s kiss.
You are my soulmate
Well that was fun. Robbie Earle said it best, last year the enormity of winning the league was too much, this year we’re enjoying it and shows. Head over heels for this team
What a team ! It’s amazing how the players love defending. They’re so focused and committed, they celebrate defensive actions.
So many great leaders too ! I feel like Jorginho, Zinchenko, Gabriel and Rice all have what it takes to be captains (of course Odegaard too).
I was worried about this one – what a result. We’ve got a proper squad and using them so well. I can’t remember the last time we had so many good options off the bench. I guess Jorginho doesn’t play Tuesday – interested to see what the midfield looks like against Bayern –
Why not, Jorginho was marvelous again today, the only change will be left back, not that Zinny did anything wrong but its a game if we don’t win then we can’t afford to lose, hence a more defensive player, Tomi looked good coming on tonight but Kiwior has got better each time he plays, Tomi for me tho..
I don’t think starting Jorginho every three days is part of the plan. I think we might see the midfield we expected to be our first choice when the season began: Partey, Rice, Odegaard. Obviously, that depends on how sharp Partey has looked like in training.
That Gabriel celebration for the block warms the heart.
I fuckin love Havertz
That’s a really, really good win. Especially as Brighton weren’t bad at all. The scoreline may look like a ‘routine win’ but Arsenal had to be good to win that. And they were. 7 to go.
what a team we got! And that defense! just wow!!
i just hope we get atleast one trophy come the end of the season, the boys deserve that much for the work they have put in! COYG!!
If you didn’t know, you would think Rice and Havertz have been at Arsenal for 4-5 years. The way they have settled and improved our team is phenomenal. What they bring to the team feels like we play with 13 against 11. Even Raya is starting to settle. Good stuff, no matter what happens after 38 games, we have to be proud of the progress this season.
I know he is probably rusty, but man oh man Zinchenko looked way off the pace today. On the flip side, Havertz is becoming Mr. Consistency. Overall a good result against a good team though. Now to take some anti-nausea meds and root for United for a day. 🤢🤮
How was it? Imagine many gunners celebrating a Bruno Fernandes goal. Not a pretty thought
Fantastic performance, we actually looked like a team that could win the league.
Great performance great result FUCKING GREAT SAVE by Raya when it mattered ! Welcome to Arsenal Mr Raya ! As for Mr Havertz? He has been a revelation & he just looks like he belongs at a place where he’s loved & appreciated. What a very nice day it has been !!!
Thought Raya already had his welcome with the penalties!
We look so much more confident at the back with Raya in goal this season. Last season, every pass back had my heart in my mouth for a Ramsay error. I really like Ramsay, but he sealed his fate against Brentford (despite the two great saves).
I love how Jorginho ran into Saka’s position when Saka was on the floor, to set up Havertz’s goal. For someone who normally likes to play with the game going on in front of him, that shows confidence in himself and his team-mates, and shows where Arsenal are at right now. The other notable thing is how this Arsenal run has co-incided with Havertz finding his role in the team. I think Señor Arteta took an expensive risk, but trusted his judgement and it’s worked!
Yes what a total football moment that was! Put a frame around that one because you don’t often see Jorginho cross it from the byline. Lee Dixon had a bit of a ‘mare on his penalty take but he nailed it on that play. The feint outside to inside on the run from Havertz around Dunk made that goal.
That was a glorious and mature performance. Welldone, boys👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
If United can JUST hold those fucking scouse cunts to a draw, then we are on the home straight.
COYG
Now, let’s smash Bayern