Say your prayers
Brighton’s Neal Maupay gave thanks to up above after scoring his side’s late winner against Arsenal. Minutes later, however, he was being confronted by Gunners players over the incident that saw their keeper, Bernd Leno, go off injured.
There’s a modern trend of sending rather cruel birthday cards.
They normally poke fun at the downside of advancing age.
You have to wonder if Kieran Tierney sent one to Sead Kolasinac saying the only gift he could offer was a place in the Arsenal defence.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina internationalist celebrated his 26th by taking over the left-back spot away to Brighton yesterday.
Lining up in the Gunners’ rear-guard hasn’t been a happy experience for many players in recent years.
On this occasion they again squandered a lead and conceded the decisive goal in the fifth minute of added-on time.
It turned out to be a nightmare for the man who has probably been their best performer at the back – goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
The German was stretchered off with a nasty knee injury that looks likely to keep him on the sidelines for an extended period.
He came to collect a cross at the edge of his box and was nudged by Brighton striker Neal Maupay. That was enough to knock the German out of his stride and his knee buckled underneath him.
He clearly blamed his opponent and gave Maupay a piece of his mind as he left the field. Many of his Arsenal colleagues felt the Frenchman should have been punished by the referee.
Their frustration boiled over when he hit the winning goal right at the death.
He also reacted rather theatrically to a tap from defender Matteo Guendouzi.
That led to the Arsenal man confronting his opponent after the final whistle, sparking an unseemly bout of pushing and shoving.
Football’s an emotional game but it was disappointing to see players indulging in a rammy when the public keep being implored to observe social distancing.
You have to assume Tierney’s recent struggles with injury left Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta believing that two full games in four days was a bit much for the Scotland defender.
He almost came off the bench ten minutes from the end, but an administrative mix-up meant he was delayed until the 87th minute.
Normally, that would have been a major talking point but these are far from normal times.
Arsenal took the lead after 68 minutes when £72-million man Nicolas Pepe curled a beauty of a shot into the top corner from just inside the box.
They could only stay ahead for seven minutes. Lewis Dunk was allowed to stab the ball in from close range after the Gunners failed to stop a short corner being fired across the penalty area.
Brighton clinched their 100th win in all competitions at the Amex with the latest Premier League goal they’ve ever scored.
Aaron Connolly flicked the ball into Maupay’s path and he produced a cool finish over Martínez to leave the Seagulls five points clear of the drop zone.
Maupay said he had apologised to Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and stressed he hadn’t intended to injure the goalie.
Arteta accepted that explanation and slammed his own players for not competing.
Kieran Tierney, it seems, finds himself as part of a very unhappy camp.