Arsenal 1-3 Brighton: Top of the league, you’re having a laugh

The League Cup has never been the kindest mistress to the Albion. But not even it is immune to the talents and charm of Roberto De Zerbi, a final score of Arsenal 1-3 Brighton resulting in the Seagulls knocking out the Premier League leaders from the competition.

You have to go back to 1994 to find the last time Brighton tasted a League Cup victory in open play against opponents higher than themselves in the footballing pyramid.

It was the famous night away at Leicester City. Stuart Munday scored from 30 yards, Kurt Nogan bagged a goal to pique apparent interest from Liverpool and Jimmy Case was sent off for being deaf as Liam Brady’s Division Two Seagulls shocked Filbert Street with a 2-0 success.

Manchester City were eliminated from the competition in 2008 at Withdean but that came via the lottery of penalties. Brighton could draw the Citizens in round four of the 2022-23 competition after they eliminated Chelsea, adding to Graham Potter’s woes at Stamford Bridge.

The Albion cannot though face the Blues. Or Spurs. Arsenal too are gone from the League Cup. Liverpool will not last much longer if they perform as they did when needing penalties to scrape past Paul Warne’s Derby County at Anfield.

1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up The Leeds United are out. So too West Ham. And Crystal Palace. And Brentford. And Everton. And Fulham. One of Manchester United or Aston Villa will also fall at the third round stage.

Three of the European Super League Elite Six are gone, part of a total of 10 Premier League sides in total to have been eliminated. With half the top flight out of the competition, the League Cup is opening up nicely for an unfashionable side to go far. Why not the Albion?

If they continue to play as well as they did in Arsenal 1-3 Brighton, then the Seagulls will take some stopping. “You look better than you did under Potter,” was the verdict of my Arsenal supporting friend, who is woe betide to ever compliment the Albion.

He is right. Football might be a fickle sport where a head coach can go from hero to zero in the space of seven days, but I cannot shake this feeling that De Zerbi is something special.

And that we might come to look back at Glow Up Graham walking out for Chelsea’s millions as a blessing in disguise; the moment where we landed a truly elite head coach capable of taking Brighton to heights we could only ever dream of before. Like a Wembley final or major silverware.

De Zerbi struck the perfect balance between giving fringe players game time but naming a side strong enough to win at the Emirates.

Levi Colwill, Billy Gilmour, Julio Enciso, Jeremy Sarmiento and to a lesser extent Tariq Lamptey all grasped the opportunity to show that Brighton have quality beyond the current Premier League starting XI.

There were eight changes in total. It says a lot about the Albion that it did not feel like so many. That when the teams were announced, this felt like a side good enough to beat the number one team in England right now, who themselves made wholesale changes.

Jason Steele too started and was as entertaining as always. There were moments of chaos and confusion from the Albion’s League Cup specialiast mixed in with two really impressive and important second half saves when the scores were locked at 1-1.

Steele went full stretch to keep out Eddie Nketiah’s powerful effort. He then showed the sort of reactions which can only be honed by drinking in The Station pub in Hove and on the 16th hole at Singing Hills by doing brilliantly to keep out a Reiss Nelson header.

One-time Brighton target Nketiah was the man who opened the scoring in the 20th minute. Nelson embarked on a mazy run through the middle to slip in Nketiah, who bent a high-class effort into the top corner.

Lewis Dunk and Colwill appealed for offside but they were ignored by the assistant. With VAR not in operation, Nketiah and the Gunners could celebrate the goal safe in the knowledge there would not be a 25 minute delays whilst someone at Stockley Park drew some bendy lines on a screen to try and find a reason to rule it out.

Arsenal just about deserved their lead having been the better side for much of the opening exchanges, after weathering a Brighton storm in the first five minutes.

In that spell, Danny Welbeck had an effort blocked behind for a corner and Enciso failed to get a touch on a Joel Veltman header to put the ball into what was effectively an open goal.

The Albion’s response to going behind was impressive. Solly March played in Danny Welbeck but the pass looked like it should have been easier than opening a tin of baked beans for Arsenal third choice goalkeeper Karl Hein to gather.

Unfortunately for Hein, he ended up with tomato sauce all over his face as an unfortunate slip when he attempted to come and collect enabled Welbeck to get to the ball first.

That allowed Welbeck to go around Hein, who brought Dat Guy down in the box. Welbeck channelled his inner Kerry Mayonaise away at Millwall in the 2006-07 Paint Pot by converting a mustard penalty past Hein to level the game.

At this point, we can only apologise for using the best part of three paragraphs of this Arsenal 1-3 Brighton report to make terrible Heinz-based puns which do not even make sense.

Making more sense were De Zerbi’s substitutions, all of which appeared to be pre-planned. Off at half time went March and Moises Caicedo and on came Pascal Gross and Kaoru Mitoma. Dunk was withdrawn on the hour mark with Adam Webster taking over at centre back and as captain.

It took Mitoma only 13 minutes to make an impact. Sarmiento ran at Arsenal before playing a pass to the left where Mitoma was arriving. The Japanese international curled past Hein and into the opposite corner to send the 7,000 strong away end into raptures.

12 minutes later and Arsenal 1-3 Brighton was wrapped up by Lamptey. De Zerbi had opted to start Lamptey at left back and he gave Cedric Soares a torrid time, culminating in a rapid charge forward the sort of which marked him out as such an exciting player before that 11 month spell on the sidelines.

When Lamptey found himself haring into the Arsenal box, the finish did not disappoint. He beat Hein with a clinical shot low and hard before celebrating in front of the Albion support. Welbeck lifted Lamptey to the sky, like a father holding up his son so he can watch fireworks.

Arsenal might have expected a spark of their own when Mikel Arteta turned to his bench and introduced his big guns in response to the score becoming Arsenal 1-3 Brighton.

On came Gabriel Jesus, Granit Xhaka and Oleksandr Zinchenko. None of those were able to make much difference, the Gunners enjoying a lot of possession but never testing Steele.

Arsenal fans could only muster a couple of choruses of “Top of the league” in trying to urge their side on. Brighton supporters responded with “Top of the league, you’re having a laugh.”

And laugh we did. At winning again at the Emirates to go with 2-1 victories in December 2019 and back in April. We do like this corner of north London.

At Chelsea for taking Potter and landing us with De Zerbi. And at the prospect of an extended run in the League Cup whilst so many other Premier League club fall by the wayside.

We’re the famous Brighton & Hove Albion and we’re going to Wembley?

(Narrator: Brighton would go onto lose 2-0 at home to Gillingham in the League Cup fourth round)