Result: Arsenal 1-3 Brighton
Competition: Carabao Cup
Date: 9 November 2022
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Arsenal: Hein, Cedric, Saliba, Holding, Tierney, Elneny, Lokonga, Vieira, Marquinhos, Nelson, Nketiah
Subs: Turner, White, Zinchenko, Gabriel, Partey, Xhaka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Jesus
Brighton came from behind to secure a deserved 3-1 win against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium as Mikel Arteta’s rotated team fell at the first hurdle in the Carabao Cup.
The Gunners took the lead against the run of play in the 20th minute when Eddie Nketiah curled home beautifully after a driving run through midfield by Reiss Nelson.
Roberto De Zerbi’s side had looked much the sharper side before that and twice came close with efforts flashed over the bar of debutant keeper Karl Hein.
The Estonia international, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Reading, looked nervy in the opening stages, particularly with the ball at his feet, and went on to make a horrible error in the 27th minute, first slipping as he weighed up whether to sweep up a through ball before taking out Danny Welbeck with a badly timed dive at the striker’s feet.
The ex-Gunner stepped up from 12-yards and sent the keeper the wrong way to equalise. He’s now scored at the Emirates for four clubs, including Watford, Manchester United and us.
Arsenal huffed and puffed in the period up to half time, struggling for fluidity on the ball with Fabio Vieira and Sambi Lokonga too often caught dawdling or taking heavy touches. The Portuguese and winger Marquinhos weren’t helped by a series of late tackles that seemed to further sap their confidence.
While William Saliba was his usual imperious self and Kieran Tierney and Nelson were bright, Arteta couldn’t hide his frustration on the touchline, regularly face-palming in between the usual barking of instructions.
You sensed the players were given a rocket at the break because we looked much sharper for 10 minutes. Nketiah had a low drive deflected onto the post by keeper Jason Steele, Nelson tested the Brighton stopper with a header that was clawed away and Lokonga scuffed a couple of efforts wide.
However, just as we were picking up steam, Brighton produced a slick move that was finished by substitute Kaoru Mitoma. As was the case at PSV Eindhoven, questions have to be asked of Rob Holding who was too easily dragged out of position leaving us exposed when the decisive pass was made.
Just as Arteta readied replacements Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, Brighton killed the game. Tariq Lamptey burst into the box from the left flank and finished low under Hein.
Arsenal did dominate possession in the closing 20 minutes but Brighton continued to look more threatening, often counterattacking as we committed men forward. Niggly fouls and plenty of time-wasting were enough to spark a mass exodus from the capacity crowd; few expected a late miracle that might have taken the match to penalties.
After a stellar run at the Emirates so far this season, defeat in the final home game of the pre-World Cup schedule is a bitter pill to swallow. That said, when you look at what we have to play for after Christmas, the Carabao Cup would have been an unwelcome distraction.
I guess that’s the quadruple gone then.
Turner was available why inexperienced Hein?
A heinous decision by Arteta.
He’s an Estonian international with 16 caps so not that inexperienced. This was the ideal match to play him and you can’t pinpoint the defeat on him. We had 23 shots and only scored one goal.
Almost certainly an agreement with USMNT not to play him because he’s still recovering from his niggle
It’s easy to talk when you have the benefit of hein-sight
Couldn’t see the match, but I doubt we can lay this defeat at Hein’s feet.
Bye bye Carabao no one gave a toss about you !
Now to focus on the real stuff. 1-4 place in the PL, the FA Cup with all its proud heritage we have done so well in over the years and of course the Europa League.
Good riddance to the Brexity cup that is the Carabao Cup. Bleurgh!
The Brexity Cup?
What the fudge are you smoking?
Brexiters are known for their love of energy drinks 🙂
and yet Red Bull (who started the whole “make shitloads of cash flogging waste caffeine to gullible twunts” trend) are a European company 🤔
The “final game of the pre world cup schedule” is surely Wolves at the weekend?
missing the words “at home” I guess. couldn’t be arsed :))
Why was the game not broadcast?
on my subscription o every other game in English and Spanish.
odd
Good thing it wasn’t broadcasted. Like it never happened.
I was waiting for Blogs’ player ratings. I was planning to argue that his rating of Aaron Ramsey was far too high.
Never happy to lose a game but with what we have to fight for and how packed the schedule already is, it’s not the worst thing in the world going out tonight. The fact the next round is played just 3 days after the World Cup final just shows how bonkers the schedule is and a few more days rest won’t go amiss
Plus spuds put out near enough the same 11 as on the weekend and still lost, always makes a loss feel better somehow.
Another trophyless season for spuds.
I guess that last season without the Europa nights made sense getting into this competition as far as we could. This season there are enough games to worry about after the world cup break
Not bothered at all about winning that trophy.
I suppose Elliott would be disappointed we didn’t lose 0-10
Is Jesus okay? bit silly … even Saliba should have been rested.
bit disappointing with the team we put out, at least no-one saw it on TV.
Bring on Wolves v first XI. Top at Xmas sounds good plus 2 key signings. Santa Stan
Carabao Cup forfeited. Understandable, but I would loved if we went for it regardless and then sort out the potential consequences later. It’s a trophy. Also, quite strange not being able to watch the game. Shame.
Disappointing considering Brighton also rotated almost their full team.
Still on paper it seemed like one tweak too many. White and Odegaard instead of Cedric and Marquinhos could have made the difference.
Can’t understand why our #2 Turner didn’t start.
30 years of League Cup hurt, Andy Linighan still gleaming.
At least with Everton also getting knocked out, there’s now a date available in January to rearrange our postponed fixture.
I think not having these extra games is priceless in this weird WC year. Nelson looks like he’s done enough to stay a bit longer and maybe get a new contract ✅ Vieira needs some one to one Arteta training in the next month. Holding is a great guy with great attitude but let’s be honest, he’s not good enough…..neither is Cedric. Marquinhos needs a loan and I’d cash in on Lokonga and upgrade in the summer ( unless he suddenly turns into Yaya Toure…..) Not being negative, it’s just obvious we need more quality in squad depth…hopefully reinforcements arrive… Read more »
The two-legged semi final takes place in January around a series of big PL games against big teams like Man Utd and Newcastle, and there’s also a NL derby in there too. Imagine if we had to play Man City in the semis, we would have to put out a full strength team and it would stretch our squad too thin. What the last few games in the EL and tonight have shown me is that we lack the strength in depth needed to compete on multiple fronts and we need to find some better squad players in multiple positions… Read more »
Well said, good points made.
I sincerely hope City do get to the semifinals and then knacker themselves out whilst getting beaten over two games.
A pipe dream, I know!! 😂
Linighan scored the winner in the FA Cup Final replay. Steve Morrow scored the League Cup Final winner.
Seems like a great result, convince me otherwise. If winning requires more first time involvement than what was used, I would rather we didn’t have the extra games. Of course I would love us to win every game, but I don’t think we have the squad to keep up our winning ways in all competitions.
We don’t have the squad. This is a blessing in disguise.
Top four and the Europa League are the priorities
Top 2 and Europa League 😉
Top 1 and Europa League 🙂
Top 1 winning the remaining games in the PL and Europa League 👌
How was Sambi today?
Dwindled on the ball, didn’t lay off enough forward passes or get into enough attacking positions.
Some good touches and a nice turn out of trouble now and then.
I don’t know if he’s just not good enough or xhaka and partey have spoilt me.
My thoughts exactly.
In answer to your question, I think it’s a bit of both!!
I stopped listening to the commentary at 1-1 as it was not our team playing if you know what I mean?
Just got back from the game and Eddie’s lack of belief in the pressing system coupled with Cedric at wingback in a 4 cost us this game.
Eddie scored a fine goal, but I make you right about Cedric.
My somewhat negative opinion of him is well documented on these pages and last night did little to convince me otherwise; indeed I felt vindicated.
He’s not at the level we’re clearly aiming at. That’s about as kindly as I can put it.
Brighton have had our number for a while now. Its quite irritating.
As we’ve only lost 2 of the last 10 matches, I can’t see your point
I meant the last 10 meetings between the 2 clubs of course
Arsenal’s last 10 results v Brighton :
W2 D3 L5
So you should be able to see his point.
You have read that stat the wrong way around.
Brighton have only lost 2 of their last 10 matches against Arsenal.
Whatever.
We move. COYG!!!
Not too fussed with the result but we do have big issues when rotating the squad there seems to be a massive drop off in quality which would cause some concern when/if we get injuries
The same can really be said for every other team except Man City.
We should be fine rotating up to 3 players. Anything more than that and it becomes noticeable.
Was hoping that the ‘B’ Squad would show hunger and desire to win this game. Looks like they didn’t, with the likes of Man City, PSG and Newscastle, it will become more difficult to see young players make a name for themselves and develop within the squad.
Just underlines there is still work to be done on the squad. Holding Elneny Soares need to be upgraded. Viera still adjusting, and a decision on whether Lokonga is worth persisting with, he doesn’t seem to take his chances when he has them but I still see a lot of potential
That this highlights that there is still work to be done on building the squad is a positive.
The removal of further energy sapping/injury risking cup ties is another.
We may be eternally thankful for this come January and February when City will be playing extra games.
Sad that the League Cup has lost so much of its shine. I always remember the run we had in 87 and 88 seasons were some of the most exhilarating moments as an Arsenal fan (ok maybe not 88 final itself). It was the prelude to greater things to come, but was a cherished trophy in its own right. Things move on.
Well said. The 1987 final victory over Liverpool was awesome; the 1988 final defeat against Luton really stung, we should have walked it. The memories are still strong. Our win in 1987 was not only our first trophy in eight very long years, it was what I consider to be the birth of modern Arsenal. After putting Spurs out in the semi final replay at White Hart Lane with David Rocastle’s last gasp winner, it was also when we turned the tide on Spurs, who had been threatening to become our betters with their FA Cup success in ‘81 and… Read more »
Tottenham’s PA announcing at half-time of the semi-final second leg how their fans could apply for tickets for the final, with them 2-0 up on aggregate at the time and 45 minutes to go, was what galvanised us to turn that around. Agree that the following season’s final still stings. Martin Hayes hitting the post from a yard and Nige missing a penalty when we were 2-1 up… 😭
Blogs – you need to use a VPN to take out a streaming contract on DSTV SuperSport (in South Africa).
By some stretch, the best overall sports coverage on the planet… EVERY sport!
They have 14 channels – and, yes , we had all the Carabao games, simultaneously, live.
Paying in GBP (or Euros) it’ll be cheap as…
Not a biggie and probably a relief to lighten the match load a little.
However – we MUST buy in Jan… we again we see that
Sambi is no Partey
Eddie is no Jesus
Holding is no Gabriel
Viera is no Odegaard
Cerdric is no Tomi/Ben