Arsenal 1-1 Brighton: Albion spark Arsenal meltdown… again

Before Arsenal 1-1 Brighton, TNT Sports gave much needed and appreciated coverage to the current concerning Amex Stadium wine situation.

The punditry team discussed a WAB tweet from half time of last week’s 2-1 home win over Manchester United, regarding the lack of red wine on sale in the West Stand Upper.

With no red available, we opted for rosé instead. Big mistake. Ghastly does not cover it. “Reckon sticking your head in the flooded reaction chamber at Chernobyl would be more pleasant,” said the original tweet, although TNT opted to leave that bit out.

Thank you to @footballontnt for bringing the current Amex Stadium rose wine situation to a wider audience 🙏 Hopefully @JoeMarler can join in when we repeat the website feature of trying a glass in every concourse at a single game (7 glasses in total) soon #BHAFC pic.twitter.com/Mb9c9XLN7O

— We Are Brighton (@wearebrighton) August 31, 2024

On the afternoon of Saturday 31st August, we rediscovered something almost as nice to drink as the finest Argentine Malbec availbable anywhere in the world. The tears of Arsenal fans unable to emotionally handle being held to a 1-1 draw by Brighton.

Their complaints centred around the red card shown to Declan Rice four minutes into the second half. Joel Veltman put the ball down to take a quick free kick. Rice prevented him doing so by nudging the ball away.

Referees have been told to stamp down on behaviour like kicking the ball away and stopping the game being restarted. Hence why Rice picked up a second yellow card. Veltman gave Rice a good booting as well as he attempted to launch the free kick down the pitch, just to rub salt into the wounds.

A harsh card? Maybe. If the boot was on the other foot and it was Carlos Baleba being shown red, there would undoubtedly be Brighton supporters claiming top six bias against the Albion.

Rather than Gunners fans making bizarre claims that there is some sort of conspiracy working to prevent them winning the Premier League. Like we said, precious.

But at the same time, Rice and Arsenal had been warned that exactly what Rice did will be punished this season. So, why do it? The arrogance to think you can get away with it, presumably just because you are Arsenal, is breath taking.

Gunners fans may point to Pedro kicking the ball away in the first half when it had gone out for an Arsenal throw and receiving no recourse. The difference being that Pedro did not prevent the game being restarted quickly by twatting the ball into Row Z.

No Arsenal player was on the scene, ready and waiting to take a quick throw. The equivalent would have been Ben White having the ball in his hands and Pedro kicking it from them.

Whether that is enough of a difference in offence to warrant different punishment is up for debate. TNT did in fact cover it. Once they had finished dealing with the Amex Stadium wine crisis, obviously.

Most tellingly, Rice came out afterwards and accepted he deserved a red card. “I’ve not sprinted over and smashed the ball away, I’ve touched the ball with the outside of my foot,” Rice said.

“But look, this is the laws of the game. If you touch ball away, even a little bit, obviously it’s a red card after my challenge in the first half which I fully accept was a 50-50 that I didn’t win.”

If only Gunners fans were as magnanimous as the England midfielder. Maybe more focus would then be given to just how well Brighton played in drawing 1-1 with Arsenal.

On another day, the Albion might have even beaten the second best team in the Premier League on their own patch. To go with victories in 2019, 2022 and that stunning 3-0 success Roberto De Zerbi masterminded in May 2023 which all-but ended the Gunners’ hopes of being crowned champions.

With such a formidable record at the Emirates, perhaps we should not be surprised that Arsenal are so rattled so frequently by Little Old Brighton.

Mikel Arteta had done his homework and realised, as good a player as Jack Hinshelwood is, he is no natural left back.

Everton and Manchester United had a lot of joy down the Albion left in the opening two games of the season and so Arteta attempted to overload the flank with Bukayo Saka joined by Martin Odegaard and White.

Saka managed a couple of early incursions into the Brighton box and White gave the hosts an opportunity to press half-hearted penalty claims when his shot hit the arm of Lewis Dunk.

The Albion captain was at fault when Arsenal took the lead on 38 minutes. Firstly, he failed to challenge Saka for a header. Yes, the diminutive Gunners number seven beat the towering Dunk in the air.

Dunk then failed to play to the whistle, instead turning around on the spot and waiting for a foul to be given against Saka. One which would have been harsh in the extreme.

Saka broke into the space left empty by Dunk and played in Kai Havertz. The German forward did the rest, coolly lobbing over the advancing Bart Verbruggen and into the net.

Shortly after and Rice picked up his first booking for flying into Veltman. It proved costly for Arsenal. Had Rice not clattered Brighton’s suave and sophisticated Dutchman, the yellow he would go onto pick up for kicking the ball away would not have mattered so much.

The Albion were quick to make the most of their numerical advantage. Nine minutes later and Dunk redeemed himself with a stunning 60 yard pass out of defence, along the ground which split the Arsenal back line.

Yankubu Minteh consequently found himself one-on-one with David Raya. The Gunners goalkeeper saved Minteh’s initial effort, only to see Joao Pedro smash home the follow up to make it Arsenal 1-1 Brighton.

Fabian Hurzeler and the Albion were paid a huge compliment by Arteta as Arsenal parked the bus for the remaining half hour, opting to hold onto a point rather than go for all three and risk coming away with none.

A couple of counters from the hosts forced Verbruggen into to good saves. Otherwise, Brighton did their best to make the most of the invitation to attack.

The Seagulls dominated possession and should have added a second when Yasin Ayari produced an astonishing miss.

Jan Paul van Hecke saw a shot blocked and with Raya having dived to his right, Ayari had the entire left hand side of the Arsenal goal unguarded to aim it.

He could only place his shot straight at Raya, however. It was a massive let off for the Gunners, whose fans by now were so nervous that it was possible to feel the tension in the air.

Another big chance passed Brighton by right at the death. Georginio Rutter was wide with a header which it is not unreasonable to expect a £40 million signing to at least get on target.

Come the full time whistle and the draw was probably a fair result. Hurzeler marches on unbeaten and is now the youngest permanent manager in Premier League history to have sparked a Piers Morgan tantrum.

Of the Albion’s £200 million worth of summer signings, only Minteh started in Arsenal 1-1 Brighton. Imagine what the Seagulls might be capable of when Hurzeler unleashes all his shiny new toys on the Premier League after the international break?

Hopefully accompanied by some better quality wine at the Amex…