Arsenal came to Brighton with all guns blazing as they looked to keep their title charge alive. Even when the visitors took the lead and in such good form, I still felt the Albion could turn things around and secure victory.
Brighton’s resilience was evident, but my optimism was shattered when Kai Havertz doubled the lead in the 62nd minute. There was no coming back from that. Football is indeed an unpredictable game.
It was great to catch up with an old workmate who supports Arsenal before the match. I seem to be surrounded by Gooners, with my wife and her side of the family all ardent fans through family connections with North London.
Whenever Brighton beat Arsenal – which has happened more often than not recently – it is always a tin hat job for me.
I spoke to another Albion supporter in the queue for a sausage roll in the East Stand Upper prior to kick off. Jimmy Anderson from Brighton is 66-years-old and he was hoping the Seagulls would play like they did at Liverpool and not Brentford.
Jimmy wanted two things to speed up – the service at the bars and the football. He compared the 0-0 draw against Brentford on Wednesday evening to 90 minutes of walking football.
What do we think of that? Jimmy did at least remain hopeful of getting something against Arsenal, saying the Albion tended to play better against teams who attack rather than sit back and invite Brighton to break them down.
At least we knew the Gunners would have to get on the front foot if they were to keep pace with Manchester City and Liverpool in the title race.
With sausage roll in hand and thinking about Jimmy’s analysis, fireworks and flames greeted the Albion and Arsenal onto the pitch.
There was a warm hug between Roberto De Zerbi and Mikel Arteta involving laughs and smiles. I wonder what De Zerbi had said to Arteta to make him chuckle?
With it being the Premier League No Room for Racism weekend, the players took the knee before kick off. This is always great to see.
The Gunners got the game underway and immediately worked the ball back to David Raya. His long hoof up the left side earned Arsenal an early free kick, taken by Martin Odegaard from a dangerous position.
It was a well-placed delivery from Odegaard straight onto the head of Gabriel, who thankfully put his effort off target. “Arsenal should be ahead” said the Albion TV commentator on the highlights and he was right.
Jakub Moder was the first Brighton player to have a go but like Gabriel, he was wide. Chances kept coming with Bukayo Saka speeding in from the right flank for another shot wide.
An on-target effort then arrived from Gabriel Jesus, pushed away by a brilliant cat-like save from the in-form Bart Verbruggen.
That proved to be only a brief break from all the off-target shots. Jesus headed wide and Simon Adingra shot wide after bringing down a really exquisite long ball from Lewis Dunk. That piece of control was as if Adingra had Velcro stuck to his boots.
The deadlock was broken on 33 minutes when Tariq Lamptey took out Jesus and referee John Brooks gave an immediate penalty.
Replays showed Lamptey got a slight touch on the ball, but VAR confirmed Mr Brooks’ decision and Saka scored the penalty to give Arsenal the lead.
Julio Enciso almost equalised with one his long range specials. From where I sit in the East Upper, his shot from outside the box was heading directly into the very top corner until Raya made an unbelievable save to keep it out.
Hopefully, we get to see more exciting moments from Enciso over the rest of the season. Against a lesser shot stopper than Raya, it goes in, we are talking about Enciso scoring one of the Goals of the Season, Brighton are level going into half time and it is a different game.
The Albion seemed to be settling into the second half when the killer second arrived. Arsenal were basically able to walk the ball into the net with Brighton not decisive enough in keeping possession and then tracking back to prevent it.
Saka went down feigning injury in the lead up to the goal before making a miraculous recovery to join in the celebrations. That, however, is modern day professional football as we all know.
It was all uphill now for Brighton. The Albion had a penalty claim when poor Dunk basically had to wrestle Declan Rice off his back from a corner. I did not think piggyback racing was allowed on a football pitch; maybe someone should tell Mr Rice?!
Leandro Trossard came on for Arsenal and there was certainly no love loss from those Brighton supporters who booed him onto the pitch.
I thought to myself, well, now he is certain to come back and haunt us. Trossard’s first attempt was met by another good Verbruggen save.
Verbruggen though could not keep out Trossard next time. A poor pass in midfield was intercepted and flicked forward to send Trossard clear.
He was far too quick for any Albion player to catch, carrying the ball half the length of the pitch and dinking it over Verbruggen to make it 3-0 to Arsenal with four minutes still play.
Poor Jimmy’s prediction that facing an attacking Gunners side might help Brighton had not come to fruition. Arsenal instead proved too good, moving back to the top of the Premier League for the time being.
Brighton face a very different test next away at Burnley. The Clarets are more likely to be one of those teams who sit back, invite the Albion to break them down and hope to either take a 0-0 draw or nick a win playing on the counter. Let us just hope it is not 90 minutes of walking football, as Jimmy would say.
Despite the disappointing match result, there was a silver lining on the horizon. As I made my way up from the Bridge Car Park, I couldn’t help but notice the significant progress being made on the new Amex Stadium Fan Zone.
Construction is well underway, services are being linked up and the tarmac areas resurfaced. This development will enhance our matchday experience and be a game-changer for both the club and fans.
Tony Noble @Noble1844Tony
Seagulls Best Ever Season Volume 2 charts Brighton’s record breaking 2022-23 campaign through the eyes of Tony Noble, an East Stand Upper season ticket holder at the American Express Stadium. It is available from Waterstones, WHSmith, Amazon Bookstore and all good bookshops as well as the Albion Superstore at the Amex and via this link.
