Match Review: Brighton 1-1 Arsenal
If you ever wondered how important Maty Ryan is to Brighton and Hove Albion, then the 1-1 draw with Arsenal gave you the answer.
Without him, the Gunners would have left the Amex with a handsome win. Brighton would have lost four games in a row. The relegation zone would be nine points away. And Jurgen Locadia’s first goal in 10 months would have meant nothing.
Arsenal were all over the Albion in the opening half hour. They had 85% possession in that spell as the men in blue and white gave the ball away with even more frequency than they had in the last home game, the 2-1 defeat against Chelsea.
The Gunners had three brilliant chances to be out of sight inside that period. The first came in the fourth minute when Ryan defied gravity to brilliantly tip over Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s attempted lob.
The second arrived three minutes later and there was nothing that Ryan could do to deny Aubameyang that time, the £56m striker clinically finishing after striker partner Alexandre Lacazette had taken advantage of another poor clearance from Leon Balogun to win back possession and hold off the challenges of three defenders before finding Aubameyang in the box.
The third chance drew Ryan’s best save of the afternoon. Aubameyang found himself in one-on-one with only the Albion goalkeeper to beat and there was nothing wrong with his effort hit hard and low to Ryan’s right. It looked to all the world to be heading for the bottom corner until Ryan showed remarkable reflexes, unbelievable agility, great speed and the strongest of hands to get down and somehow keep it out.
Without Ryan making those interventions, 0-1 is 0-3 and it’s game over. This was Ryan’s last appearance before he joins up with the Australia squad for the Asian Cup of Nations throughout January and if the Socceroos make a successful defence of their title by getting all the way to the final, we won’t see him again until Burnley visit the Amex on February 9th. A potential six league games away.
With 18 points up for grabs including against sides around us in the table such as West Ham United and Fulham as well as the potent attacking line ups that both Manchester United and Liverpool’s can name, he is going to be sorely missed.
Once Ryan had completed his heroics and the Albion had weathered the storm, we were actually the better side for the final hour of the contest. In between the second and third Aubameyang chances, Glenn Murray thought he’d equalised but the referee quite rightly ruled it out after the veteran striker had bundled Bernd Leno and the ball into the back of the net.
The leveller arrived from Locadia 10 minutes before half time. Chris Hughton, looking to make the most of his squad with the Albion in the midst of a period of four games in 14 days, handed the striker a rare start out on the wing and he made the most of it with his first goal since February.
It owed much to a mistake from Stefan Lichtsteiner who failed to deal with a hoof over the top from Davy Propper and only succeeded in heading it straight into the path of Locadia who coolly rounded Leno to net.
A neat finish yes, but given some of the reactions on social media you’d think it was the Goal of the Century scored by a player that was the lovechild of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Pele. Forget the Ballon d’Or, they should rename it the Ballon Locadia for the greatest footballer ever to walk this planet.
Locadia played well, but one summer does not a swallow make. He needs to start doing it consistently before anybody gets too carried away. After all, Billy Paynter managed to look half decent in his first game away at Birmingham City. And even Chris O’Grady managed to score against Arsenal while wearing Brighton colours.
After that, the Albion could have gone onto get all three points. When we spoke to Arsenal website A Cultured Left Foot before the game, they said that the main difference between Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery was in the way that Emery would happily make tactical changes and substitutions to influence a game way before the hour mark which used to be Wenger’s point of adjustment.
Emery tried that here, removing Mesut Ozil at the break and replacing him with Alex Iwobi. Ozil hadn’t been bad in the first half but Iwobi is clearly a downgrade on a man who can cut through the best defences in the world with one touch and Ozil’s substitution certainly helped the Brighton cause in the second half.
Bernardo, excellent again at left back, teed up Solly March but his low shot was turned away by Leno, Propper’s wait for his first goal for the club goes on as he flashed both a header and a shot wide and Dale Stephens twice caught the Arsenal defence cold with brilliant long passes but March and Locadia were unable to hit the target.
In the end, a draw was probably a fair result. The Albion had the better chances to win it in the second half, but on the basis of the first 30 minutes. Arsenal were good value for a point. And without the brilliance of Ryan, they could have left with all three.
It’s going to be a long six weeks without him.
