Arsenal 1-1 Brighton: Veltman boils Rice to top player ratings
Arsenal 1-1 Brighton was a game which turned on the second yellow card shown to Declan Rice, partly explaining why Joel Veltman finds himself at the top of the player ratings.
“Shithouse”… “Master of the dark arts”… “The cleverest man to play for Brighton”… all were descriptions given to Veltman after his performance at the Emirates Stadium.
Watch the incident which earned Rice his early bath and you see Veltman put the ball down to take a quick free kick, right next to the England international midfielder.
Veltman expertly lays the trap, knowing Rice is already on a yellow and that delaying the restart is an offence punishable by a booking this season.
Rice takes the bait and kicks the ball away. Referee Chris Kavanagh applies the letter of the law and shows Rice yellow number two followed by red.
Would the Albion have come from behind to take a point against the second-best team in the Premier League had Rice remained on the pitch?
Probably not. Joao Pedro netted an equaliser less than 10 minutes after the Gunners went down to 10. Brighton could have even won it if Yasin Ayari and Georginio Rutter had not been so wasteful with late chances.
Still, a very good and deserved point which keeps the unbeaten start under Fabian Hurzeler rolling into the international break.
Here are your Arsenal 1-1 Brighton player ratings.
Bart Verbruggen – 8.31
Jason Steele had done nothing wrong in the victories over Everton and Manchester United and so dropping him seemed a little harsh. Fabian Hurzeler though clearly wants an established number one this year after Roberto De Zerbi controversially rotated Steele and Verbruggen last season. And Verbruggen more than repaid the faith with three brilliant saves from Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Saka again to take second place in the Arsenal 1-1 Brighton ratings.
JOEL VELTMAN – 8.46
Although we have dedicated the best part of 250 words to his role in the Rice red card, Veltman contributed far more than merely using his intelligence to lure a key opponent into getting themselves sent off. He made a couple of vital interventions and kept Leandro Trossard quiet.
Jan Paul van Hecke – 8.08
Another magnificent defensive performance was followed by the news that Van Hecke has received his first call up to the Dutch national side. Well overdue for a player who has come on leaps and bounds these past 12 months. The perfectly timed sliding tackle on Havertz was a thing of beauty.
Lewis Dunk – 6.38
Mixed afternoon for the Brighton captain. Terrible piece of defending when losing out to Saka in the air and then just standing on the spot like a bewildered grandmother as Arsenal broke to score. Redeemed himself though with a superb 60 yard grounded pass out of defence which created the equaliser.
Jack Hinshelwood – 5.69
Hinshelwood out-of-position on his weaker side at left back dealing with Saka was an area of concern before kick off. Saka subsequently ran riot in the first half. An experiment Hurzeler should not repeat next time the Albion are faced with a rampant right winger.
James Milner – 5.31
Forced off injured after just 16 minutes. WAB will take the blame for that one; we clearly jinxed it by posting about the excellent season Milner was enjoying a little over 24 hours prior to kick off at the Emirates.
Carlos Baleba – 7.23
First Premier League start of the season in place of the sold Billy Gilmour. Baleba made a strong case for more game time with an all-action display.
Yankubu Minteh – 6.38
Booked and was maybe fortunate not to receive another yellow for a foul on Martin Odegaard. Not his best game but he still played a part in the winner, latching onto Dunk’s pass to draw a one-on-one save from David Raya which Joao Pedro tucked away the rebound from.
Joao Pedro – 8.00
Led Thomas Partey on a merry dance throughout. Such a composed finish for his second goal in as many games, reacting instantly to gobble up Miteh’s rebound and guide the ball into a part of the goal Raya had no hope of getting to.
Kaoru Mitoma – 7.38
Mitoma gave Ben White such a run around that you could see fake tan dripping off the former Albion defender. Almost scored with a volley whilst his delicious outside of the boot cross into the box deserved to be converted.
Danny Welbeck – 7.00
Held the ball up and linked play well. Never really had a sight of goal as Arsenal did well to marshal their ex-forward, who remains immensely popular around the Emirates.
Yasin Ayari – 6.46
Had half an open goal to aim at after Raya saved but could only strike the ball straight back at the Arsenal goalkeeper. Fair play to the club website for trying to spin it in their match report as an amazing save. It was a shocking miss.
Pervis Estupinan – 5.54
Went for goal late on with a speculative effort which ended up causing Raya zero harm. Summed up a pretty chaotic return to Premier League action for the left back.
Georginio Rutter – 5.46
Couple of opportunities late, which it is not harsh to say a £40 million footballer should be doing better with. It will be interesting to see how and where Hurzeler integrates him into the starting XI after the international break.
Simon Adingra – 5.85
Two goals and an assist from his previous three matches warranted an earlier introduction than Hurzeler gave him, especially with Arsenal down to 10 men.
Julio Enciso – 5.92
Brought renewed enthusiasm but unable to really create much. Did not take 120 shots from distance in an attempt to find a glorious winner, which was nice.
The WAB Player Ratings are formulated using marks out of 10 given by Brighton fans via Twitter. To have your scores included, follow We Are Brighton on Twitter and look out for the player rating thread after each game.
