ALL MOUTH AND NO TROUSERS
Big talk but mentally weak, Arsenal are . . .
BRIGHTON 2 Dunk 75, Maupay 90+5 ARSENAL 1 Pepe 68
TALKING the talk has never been a difficulty for Arsenal. Just ask Roy Keane. Walking the walk, however, that’s where their problems lie, as Mikel Arteta is quickly discovering.
Under Arsene Wenger — at least in the first half of his reign — the Gunners were perfectly adept at doing both. Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp weren’t slow in coming forward when it was time for the insults to be dished out.
Arsenal’s current brigade have the lip part down to a tee, too.
‘The Arsenal players need to learn humility sometimes,’ said Brighton striker Neal Maupay after notching his side’s 95th-minute winner. ‘They were talking a lot in the first half and when they were 1-0 up — they got what they deserved.’
It’s backing up the jibes — making sure your football does the talking — that’s where this Arsenal squad come a cropper. The Arsenal team Arteta played in, following his arrival from Everton in August 2011, were far from perfect — incomparable to Wenger’s greatest sides.
Yet they still qualified for the Champions League in each of his five seasons at the Emirates. He also left north London with a couple of FA Cup winner’s medals.
Arsenal have not qualified for the Champions League since Arteta left to become Pep Guardiola’s assistant in 2016 and their hopes of doing so this season are bleak, particularly after this shattering loss at the Amex. Brighton deserve huge credit, of course. Even taking Arsenal’s increasingly brittle backbone into account, coming from a goal down to win against any Premier League side is no mean feat.
Graham Potter’s team were compact and well organised to claim their first league win of 2020.
Lewis Dunk was colossal in the heart of their defence, Yves Bissouma covered every blade of grass and Maupay antagonised the Gunners in more ways than one.
Yet, the best Arsenal teams — even the ones Arteta played in — would have found a way to pick the locks, particularly after Nicolas Pepe had put them ahead.
‘To go a goal down and still come away with three points is huge, especially with no supporters here. You have to find the answers from within,’ said Potter.
But as soon as Dunk equalised in the 75th minute, you sensed what was coming.
No amount of trash talking or off-the-ball retribution — as midfielder Matteo Guendouzi took it upon himself to dish out on Maupay for his role in the incident that means Bernd Leno is likely to miss the rest of the season — can compensate for Arsenal’s mental weaknesses.
‘When we show frustration we have to show it in the right way. Emotionally we have to control the situation much better,’ admitted Arteta. ‘We cannot use the injury to Bernd as an excuse. We had enough opportunities to put the game to bed.
‘Every game is totally different. It’s about the details when you go ahead — game management we have to improve. We are a very young squad, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse.’
Emotions were running high, of course. Arsenal players had watched their goalkeeper carried off, and the fact that it was Maupay, who had innocuously collided with Leno in the lead-up to the injury, who then stroked home the winner, merely exacerbated their anger. Regardless, that is no reason for such a capitulation. Arteta added: ‘Raising spirits is an uphill battle, absolutely. When you lose two games in a row the hardest thing is to lift the players and believe again.’