Match Report – Player Ratings – Arteta reaction – video
Arsenal are unbeaten so far this season, but their perfect start to the campaign was halted after drawing 1-1 with Brighton yesterday.
The only change from the team that beat Aston Villa was the return of Leandro Trossard to the starting lineup, and I thought this game had a similar feel to last week’s game. Brighton tried to block the passing lanes through the middle by putting four players high up the pitch whenever we had possession in defence.
So we found joy out wide, especially through Bukayo Saka, who had given Jack Hinshelwood a hard time in the opening stages. I felt we were consistently confident going into the game, but Brighton were buoyed by injuries. Strange as it may sound, I don’t think Yassine Ayari came on for James Milner early on to give more dynamism to the midfield, and it didn’t help that Martin Odegaard got a heavy kick to the knee. He never looked like himself after that.
The captain had a good chance to score, but, as Saka has done on several occasions, he was not confident in the final. At the other end, we had a sloppy 30 seconds when Karu Mitoma shot wide, but we found a breakthrough as the half-time approached. Saka was too strong for Lewis Dunk and he passed the ball over the defender to the onrushing Kai Havertz, who fired a beautiful finish past the goalkeeper to make it 1-0.
It was one of those moments where you expected Havertz to score, but wouldn’t have been surprised if the ball just bounced wide. I’ve seen him say he wants to score 20 goals this season, and these moments will get him close to that number. It was clinical and efficient, and that’s exactly what you want from a centre-forward in a tight game.
But the main story of the game was what happened early in the second half. Declan Rice, who had already been booked in the first half, was given a second yellow card by referee Chris Kavanagh after a light ball was kicked out by Joel Veltman. Let me say this: I have no interest in the ‘legal’ nonsense surrounding this incident. No player should be sent off for that. Not even a Tottenham player, because I feel so strongly about this.
Playing with 10 men because of that ‘foul’ is completely absurd for all sorts of reasons. Firstly, the ball was rolling, it wasn’t a legal free kick and we all know what Veltman was trying to do – send off the opponent. He wasn’t trying to restart play by passing to a teammate, he was trying to kick at Rice in the hope that the referee would give him a second yellow card for not clearing his way.
Secondly, if Rice’s kicking of the ball deserved a second yellow card, why wasn’t there a yellow card in the first half when Joao Pedro literally kicked the ball away from us in an attempt to stop us from throwing in, leaving us slightly out of position? To be clear, I have no problem with that not being a yellow card per se, but when the rule is applied to one team and not the other, especially when the ultimate sanction comes in the form of a red card for a player, it’s infuriating. Also, this happens countless times in every game without players being booked, so that kind of inconsistency permeates the whole situation.
So the literal nonsense of the law should go straight into the bin and that’s why I don’t want to hear any criticism of Rice. The referee could have just come and said ‘boys, just do it’ and there would have been little complaint (other than Veltman kicking Rice so hard that it didn’t get a card). That’s the kind of thing that drives me crazy when Brighton manager Fabian Herzeler claims Rice was yellow because he ‘kicked the ball’ and you can’t compare or give Pedro a yellow card for doing the same thing (but much more obviously).
He had a chance to help the game a little by saying, ‘Yeah, we got lucky, you don’t want your players getting sent off for that,’ but instead he defended one of the most horrible referees we’ve seen this season. He’s definitely not on my Christmas card list (unless I send him a card that says, ‘I hope your turkey is too dry and your cat pees in the gravy, idiot.’) I’d be willing to bet a very large amount that between now and May, no other player will get sent off for that. And no matter how the decision is justified by the media and pundits (and undoubtedly the PGMOL Pravda Propagandists on ESPN), it was ridiculous and outrageous that we played most of the second half with 10 men.
Brighton’s equaliser came as we were preparing to change and change shape. A good ball from Dunk put Minthe between William Saliba and Gabriel. David Raya blocked the initial shot but Joao Pedro levelled it to level the score at 1-1. The centre-half was in position for the first time this season and the way the goalscorer beat Thomas Partey, as seen in the replay, does nothing to ease concerns about his ability to keep up with the pace of the opposition we face. He also thinks he’s switched off for watching the ball and in this league that’s punished.
Riccardo Calafiori came on as a five-man defender, an interesting change, but it seemed to depend on who was on the bench. Ideally, another midfielder would have been used, but it didn’t seem right to bring on Partey and Jorginho in a 10-man team against Brighton. There were chances though. Havertz controlled and broke through really well, but the keeper made a very good save. Could Saka have been brought down in the box from the rebound? I think so, but you can’t blame him for trying to score himself.
Havertz again created a good opportunity for Saka at the back post, but he was on the stretch and couldn’t make the right contact. Ben White was excellent at the back, the two centre-halves were solid, and Raya’s crosses and safe hands from set pieces were a huge help in withstanding the pressure Brighton put on us. But the fact that they created so little for all the time they had one more man is a huge compliment to the team’s organisation and discipline.
Mikel Arteta later said:
The team of 10 responded incredibly well, the stadium responded incredibly well. We should have won the game.
And as he sent it, he chose his words carefully.
I was surprised. I was surprised, surprised, surprised. Because of how inconsistent the decisions can be. There were two incidents in the first half and nothing happened. At this level, I was surprised. I’ll repeat. By law, you want to do it, but you didn’t do it in the first half. And we have to play 11-10. It’s very simple.
As I said above, if Pedro had been booked for kicking the ball in the first half, there would have been no complaints about the Rice incident this morning. But that didn’t happen. The rules were applied differently for us, and that’s fundamentally unfair. It’s also a double whammy that Pedro was left out of the North London derby after an intermission.
Still, if we know anything about Mikel Arteta and his modus operandi, he will do his best to exploit it. It’s not ideal, but it can be useful in terms of building an ‘us versus them’ mentality. That’s my only hope for the game today. So we’re undefeated, and now we’re hoping the players who are going to internationals come back safely.
That’s all for now, and have a great Sunday everyone. We’ll talk more about this topic tomorrow on Arsecast Extra.
