Arsenal squandered the chance to cut Liverpool’s lead to three points at the top of the table as Brighton fought back at the AMEX to secure a 1-1 draw.
Ethan Nwaneri’s fifth goal of the season gave the Gunners the perfect platform for a fourth consecutive win but a tired second-half performance was punished when referee Anthony Taylor awarded a penalty to the home side after William Saliba clashed heads with Joao Pedro. The Brazil striker converted from the spot to set up a tense finale but neither side had the necessary quality to find a winner.
Here’s what the managers, players, pundits and stattos made of the action…
Mikel Arteta on a frustrating afternoon…
First of all, I’m disappointed with the result especially when we have started the game quite well and scored a beautiful goal. And then we lacked control and gave the ball away and we didn’t do the simple things well enough to be really on top of the game and have the dominance we required. The game was always open without really conceding anything.
Source: BBC Match of the Day
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Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler on the result…
When we look at Arsenal’s chances, they had one [big opportunity] during the game. Of course they were always dangerous from set pieces. We did well to come back but weren’t clean enough in the final third. Against Arsenal, you need to use your momentum to win the game. The game we want to play is intense, [we want to] press high. If you want to attack the box, you need to invest in deep runs. We’re not where we should be, but it’s a process.
Source: Sky Sports
𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝟏-𝟏 𝐀𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥: 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒
A third draw in six Premier League games for Arsenal gives Liverpool the chance to extend their lead at the top on Sunday.
Check out our report and the key stats as the Gunners slip up again ⬇️
theanalyst.com/2025/01/brig…
— Opta Analyst (@optaanalyst.optajoe.com) January 4, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Riccardo Calafiori on a below-par performance…
I think we felt we could have done a bit better to manage the game and [manage] the goal we scored in the first half. We should have scored another one. I don’t know why we made so many stupid mistakes, but the good thing is that we play again in three days [against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup]. Maybe we were too low and gave the opponents too many balls.
Source: Sky Sports
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Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke…
Of course, Arsenal is a strong team and we should be happy with a point, but in the end we should have done more than that. It’s about managing the games, it’s small margins. It’s also a really young team, if you look at our average age. We need to adapt, to do better, to improve. Consistency is the right word here, but we are such young players. You can’t say we don’t give everything, but we need to do more.
Source: premierleague.com
Ethan Nwaneri is the first player to score 5+ goals for #Arsenal in a season while aged 17 or under since John Radford in 1964-65 (8).
— Harvey Downes (@harveydownes92.bsky.social) January 4, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Arteta on Brighton’s penalty…
Bizarre. That means we have probably never seen it before. I haven’t in my career. So it is a new one.
Source: BBC Radio 5 Live
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Hurzeler on the penalty…
It was a clear penalty. It is head to head but if it is another piece of the body everybody would say it was a penalty. Joao Pedro places the ball with his head and Saliba comes to late, therefore it was a clear one.
Source: BBC Match of the Day
Ethan Nwaneri’s yellow card was Arsenal’s ninth for time wasting this season in the Premier League.
That’s more than any other team in the competition.
— Opta Analyst (@optaanalyst.optajoe.com) January 4, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Ian Wright with a positive spin on the result…
The main thing is you’ve got to win your home games and make sure you don’t lose away from home. The fact is it’s a point on the road and you have to take it. You have to keep putting pressure on Liverpool, you can’t be losing in this situation.
Source: premierleague.com
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Matthew Upson on what Arsenal lacked…
Arsenal were very good in patches. But it felt like they needed to do a bit more to see this game through. It never happened in the second half.
Source: BBC Radio 5 Live
Ethan Nwaneri:
🔺the 6th player to score multiple Premier League goals before turning 18 after Wayne Rooney (7), Michael Owen (5), Danny Cadamarteri (3), James Milner (3) and Federico Macheda (2)
🔺the 1st player to score more than one PL goal for Arsenal before turning 18
— Opta Analyst (@optaanalyst.optajoe.com) January 4, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Thomas Partey on Ethan Nwaneri…
He’s a very good player and we know the qualities he has. He’s working a lot and he’s improving. I’m really happy for him today for scoring. It could have been better if we’d have won today but we could not get the win. He needs to keep improving and all the best to him.
Source: Arsenal.com
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Arteta on why he replaced Nwaneri at half-time…
We had to make the change with Ethan because he was injured
Source: Arsenal.com
Arteta on Havertz and Odegaard being ill…
Kai tried but he was very honest and said ‘I cannot even travel, I’m not feeling good at all’. We tried yesterday to see if he could train, he tried his best and wasn’t able to do that. Martin, he didn’t train [yesterday], he said ‘let me don’t train and see how I feel tomorrow’ and he did his best to be here because we know the numbers we have.
Source: Post-game press conference
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Arteta on Arsenal’s defensive solidity…
That shows the attitude, the commitment of the defensive habits and how we apply them. I was phenomenal again – it wasn’t enough to win it and with the ball today, we lacked something, I understand, because we miss very important players that are key in our fluidity – it’s disappointing because we need to win the games.
Source: Arsenal.com
Unlucky with our injuries for the third season in a row, unlucky with refereeing decisions for at least 10 seasons in a row.
Tbf we were « lucky » with our injuries in 22/23 until Saliba and Tomiyasu got injured against Sporting.
In 23/24 I reckon we only had the injury of Jurrien Timber.
But this year has been something else!
Nevertheless, let’s listen to Ian Wright and Thomas Frank (unless he says how good his shitty team was against us).
In 23-24 Partey missed 85% of the season.
Plus TP, Jesus, ESR and Tomi…
Pretty sure any objective analysis would find we had far less than the average amount of games missed by first choice players in both of those seasons. This season though, the chickens have truly come home to roost and we’ve probably gone to the top of the league or therabouts in that unfortunate stat.
I am sure if Saliba was dishonest and rolled around holding his head, it would have been treated as a clash of heads not a penalty.
If he’d screamed at the ref about checking VAR, they might have actually made a full check!
We have been unlucky and harshly treated. I could offer up myriad reasons and theories but what’s the point ? We have to be honest. This is a team that is hard to beat. It rarely loses. Despite all the nonsense we have lost twice. Away at toon – where we were poor – and away at Bournemouth with 10 men for an hour (another red card you won’t see all season again). Hand on heart we don’t do enough to win games. A single event can derail us as a result. I think that’s the priority of squad construction… Read more »
We need to start winning.
The first half of the season has pretty much been an anomaly in terms of statistics with red cards you will never see again and teams scoring with their first/only meaningful attack. Despite that, we have only lost twice and yes, we have drawn too many. Not too bad if not for Liverpool’s incredible form and luck.
Still a long way to go- we are running out of time to start winning but never say never. What will help is getting some bodies back.
Thanks god Ian Wright exists.
Yes, thank god, but his thinking that winning your home games and not losing away is enough is a bit outdated. That might have been enough to win the league back in his day, not the case anymore. Need to win against non top 6 sides.
while i adore him and his optimism, i think he’s a little bit off with his assessment here. the league has changed, you can’t settle with drawing away matches anymore. if you want to win the league you have to win every game.
No you don’t
No team ever has.
I do detest that Hurzeler
I wonder how he’s viewed in Germany because he really was viewed as a wunderkind when he was at Sankt-Pauli but now just look like a random prick
You touched a nerve there, Belgian. My prick has been random for several years now. Some call it erectile dysfunction, others whisky, but I reject these harmful labels.
I can’t say exactly why but I’m with you. detest is too little.
He’s just a troll at this point. Why does he even feel the need to give his opinion? Good managers just say it looked like a pen but I haven’t seen it back yet.
yes, how dares him to express his opinion? unbelievable
Think you’ve lost your way, back to the Brighton subreddit mate.
“Clear penalty”? Really?
What’s the difference between Saliba headbutting the Brighton player and Fabianski punching Gabriel?.
What? Saliba gets the ball, then they clash heads in the follow-through. Players clash heads in the box all the time and it’s never given as a penalty. A keeper coming to punch the ball, missing and punching a player is so obviously different.
The Brighton player got the ball, it deflected off Saliba. Other end of the pitch I would want a penalty, and so would you. The referee didn’t cost us the win yesterday. A poor performance and the same tactics that teams are figuring out ways to nullify by the week did.
Just plain disagree. If you’re dribbling past me and I stick out my foot and the ball “deflects” off my foot and then I make contact with your leg, that’s not a foul, because I’ve gotten the ball. The exception being excessive force or being out control I suppose, but Saliba is neither here to me, and again, gets the ball first. We didn’t play well, but that doesn’t make the ref’s decision correct.
I agree with the answers the others provided. Saliba clearly and cleanly (i.e. without touching Pedro yet) hits the ball and THEN the heads collide. If it were legs and not heads, no foul.
sarcasm?
Aye the Arsene approach is always the best approach doesn’t look daft when proven wrong on Match of the Day later.
Another incoming gloss over by the corrupt PGMOL regarding VAR missing the clear touch from Saliba.
That’s right. I’m reminded of his “don’t compare the two situations” about Pedro kicking the ball away and not getting carded last time. Best course of action as a manager is to just say I haven’t seen it back yet.
Same. More than I do any other manager anywhere. Started at the reverse fixture last year. The guy will just say anything. And Brighton’s season is not great compared to recent years. I hope he doesn’t win a goddamn thing, ever, unless his character improves.
As funny as this might sound, we need a right back more than we need a striker 😂 I mean A Striker and not an attacking right winger. We have only won one game all season when Partey was deployed on the right back position. (I stand corrected). It is not a coincidence that our levels drop significantly when Partey is not operating at the heart of our midfield. We don’t win games. We simply draw them! So frustrating. We really need to stop using Partey in defence and use him where he is strongest and raises the team. So,… Read more »
I agree 100%. Every time Arteta uses Partey at eight back the team basically loses three players. The right forward becomes more of a defender, the right back position becomes porous and the mid field loses its control. Find an alternative to playing Partey at right back. Playing the youngster Josh at right back with Partey in his proper place anchoring midfiled will leave the team in a much better shape than Partey at right back. For a coach whose job it is to get the best out of this team I can’t understand how Arteta hasn’t figured this out… Read more »
He doesn’t know how to
Arteta must have wronged a fullback at some point and is now cursed for eternity. Calafiori, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko, MLS, Tierney, Timber, White—we have at least three players in the depth chart on each side, and it seems we’re still constantly plugging holes. Ben White was reliable but we had to play him so much he’s on the injury table now, too. So frustrating.
This season feels so cursed. We can’t catch a break. Hope Nwaneri isn’t out too long. He looked good before his injury.
What is it with us taking fucking ages over every throw in, corner, free kick etc. Its obviously tactical, but we even do it when time is against us. Its frustrating. Also, the rolling around feigning injury is getting boring too. I love this team and am an eternal optimist, but even I find us hard to watch at the moment.
I don’t find us hard to watch, but the thrown in and rolling around thing is getting infuriating.
I don’t want to see it at this club
Nothing to do with our attemps to win the game today, but here’s some reminiscenses from my younger days as a happy lad on a weekend trip to the South coast. Catch the train from Guildford;get off in Brighton; first pub tepid and rancid beer; next gaff where we’d heard there was a ‘great blues band’ playing; they were shit after what we were used to in Guildford; fish n’ chips of the most dubious quality; next gaff that cost almost a weeks wages to get in; an alliance with a female that gave me what we used to call… Read more »
Cheers
Once I went to Brighton, took my jacket off and put it on the floor before I pissed against a wall. When I’d finished I realised the footpath ran downhill towards my jacket and it was soaked in urine. Had to carry it around for the rest of the night in a plastic bag.
Never been back.
You related to Rambling Pete?
Miss Ramblin Pete’s stories.
This game summed up our whole season:
1. Put together a patched up team of players out of form
2. Score a goal
3. Fail to build on the first goal
4. Get a dodgy decision
The one thing we have in our control is point 3 and that’s what is frustrating the fans.
I saw Ethan’s yellow card coming I remember screaming to my self just take it! just take!!! as I knew Anthony Taylor would love nothing more than give him one and the media narrative would start again
I only want cards for last ditch match saving tackles he did take too long and I hope he learns from it
I don’t care what anyone says I believe the refs must have had a meeting and discussed about making arsenal scape goats for time wasting