CRASH & BERND
Neal sinks Gunners after keeper KO row
Brighton striker Neal Maupay sank Arsenal with an injurytime winner – then said the lippy Gunners got precisely what they deserved.
The French hitman was involved in a first-half incident with Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno that led to the German being carried off on a stretcher.
Leno had a go at Maupay as he was being carried off before the striker and countryman Matteo Guendouzi sparked a full- time ruckus in which Mikel Arteta’s charges surrounded the Seagulls star.
Maupay lobbed replacement goalie Emi Martinez in the fifth minute of injury time after Lewis Dunk had bundled the ball over the line to level.
That came after a spectacular curling finish from winger Nicolas Pepe had given Arsenal the lead midway through the second half.
On the incident with Leno, Maupay said: “I just went for the ball. I am that type of player – I don’t want to stop until the referee blows the whistle. “Some of their players need to learn what is humility.
“One of them was talking the whole game and saying really bad things.
“When I scored I just had to say, ‘Listen, that is what happens when you say bad things on the pitch’.
“At half-time I went to the manager
Mikel Arteta to apologise. I never meant to injure the keeper. I jumped for the ball. I apologised to the team and to him as well. I have been through a bad injury, it is hard. Arsenal players maybe need to learn humility sometimes.
“They were talking a lot. They got what they deserved. I just went to get the ball. When he landed he twisted his knee. It is football, there is contact.
“I never meant to hurt him. I apologise again and wish him a speedy recovery.”
Arsenal limped to defeat against Manchester City during the week and would have been keen to put that nightmare performance behind them, one that saw Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari injured and a calamitous showing from red-carded defender David Luiz.
But despite being on a three- game winning run before Covid-19 struck to put the Premier League on pause in March, a second successive defeat now leaves them in ninth place, eight points off the top four and Champions League football with eight matches remaining.
They were far more inventive and controlling this time around, as the likes of Bukayo Saka and Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang came close to scoring before Pepe’s strike. But that’s what will make this defeat harder to take. Arteta did not take issue with Maupay at the end of the game, despite losing his preferred No. 1, acknowledging that the collision was purely accidental.
What he did criticise, however, was the manner in which his side surrendered their lead to crumble in the dying stages at the Amex Stadium.
“I always believe players don’t have intention to injure people and I am sure he did not intend to do that,” said Arteta.
“It is unacceptable the way we lost the game. I am very frustrated. We like competing and I know we have a young squad but we threw the game away. We had to put it to bed earlier.
“We need to try to lift the players. There’s a lot of things that they’ve done really well but we don’t compete.
“At this level you can’t give the goals that we give away.
“It’s impossible. I know that we are a very young team but in the Premier League if you make two mistakes like this, you lose two goals.
“We can’t accept that.”
For Brighton, the crucial win puts Graham Potter’s side five points clear of the relegation zone.
It sets the Seagulls up nicely ahead of a nightmare run-in that sees them come up a g a i n s t L e i c e s t er C i t y, Manchester United, runaway leaders Liverpool and Manchester City in their next five games.