‘Arrogant’ Arsenal in Brighton injury row
Keeper out, players rowing... Arsenal horror show goes on as Maupay hits late winner
ARSENAL’S players were accused of arrogance as their season continued to unravel with a last-gasp 2-1 defeat by Brighton.
Brighton’s match-winner Neal Maupay claimed the Gunners needed to ‘learn humility’ after Matteo Guendouzi grabbed him by the throat at the full-time whistle.
Arsenal’s players, who suffered their second defeat since the restart, were incensed after Maupay had barged into Berndt Leno, which left the goalkeeper needing to be taken off on a stretcher. He now faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a knee injury.
‘The Arsenal players need to learn humility sometimes,’ said Maupay. ‘They had been talking a lot in the first half. They got what they deserved.’
BEFORE t he Premier League restart, Arsenal full-back Hector Bellerin made a pledge. He would, he said, plant 3,000 trees in the Amazon Rainforest each time his team won until the end of the season. It is a worthy idea but you can probably spot the flaw. Two games in, the diggers are still waiting and the spades are still clean.
Poor Arsenal have already emerged as the horror show of the second part of this interrupted season, even though it is only five days old. They capitulated to Manchester City at the Etihad on Wednesday and had two players carried off on a stretcher and David Luiz sent off for general haplessness. T
heir highest-paid player, Mesut Ozil, did not even make the bench.
Yesterday, against relegationthreatened Brighton, they blew a one- goal lead given them by a sumptuous strike from Nicolas Pepe, conceded a soft equaliser scored by Lewis Dunk seven minutes later and succumbed to a 95thminute winner from Neal Maupay. If that were not enough, their bad luck redoubled when they lost their goalkeeper, Bernd Leno, to what looked like a serious knee injury.
The 2- 1 victory lifted Brighton five points clear of the drop zone and was early vindication for their chief executive Paul Barber, who had fought hard for the right to play home games at the Amex Stadium rather than neutral venues.
Brighton still face a difficult runin but this smash-and-grab raid has established a gap between them and their fellow strugglers.
But if their season was given a fillip, Arsenal’ s plum bed new depths. If the result was a tribute to Brighton’s perseverance and refusal to give in, it prompted another round of analysis about the mental vulnerability that seems to have nestled at Arsenal’s core for most of the last decade. It is six months since Mikel Arteta took over at The Emirates and it is clear this is not going to be an easy ship to turn around.
Leno was hurt in an innocuous incident with Maupay in the first half when he jumped to catch a high ball and landed awkwardly, hyperextending his ri ght knee. His screams of pain could be heard echoing around the empty Amex Stadium. He jabbed his finger angrily in the French striker’s direction as he was carried off, making it clear he felt he was to blame.
At the final whistle, Maupay was confronted by Arsenal midfielder Matteo Guendouzi, who appeared to grab his throat. Maupay fell to the floor and there was a melee before Maupay was led away by a reproachful Sead Kolasinac. Guendouzi may face disciplinary action for his behaviour. It was at that point that the story became — as it so often does with Arsenal — a debate about the losers’ attitude. ‘ Some of the Arsenal players need to learn humility,’ Maupay said afterwards. ‘Especially one of them. He was talking all game. He was saying bad things. I don’t want to say because I could be in trouble. This is what happens when you talk too much. They were talking a lot in the first half and in the second half when they were 1-0 up. They got what they deserved.’
Arsenal’s defeat was another blow to their chances of qualifying for the Champions League and ruined their immediate hopes of going ahead of Tottenham, who drew with Manchester United on Friday. Their second defeat in four days leaves them in 10th place, eight points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea.
Arsenal had already had t he restart from Hell at the Etihad on Wednesday night. They lost 3-0 to Manchester City but that was only half of it. Both Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari were carried off on stretchers with i njuries i n the first half and substitute Luiz gave away a goal, conceded a penalty and was sent off, all in the space of 25 minutes.
Arteta’s team had started on the south coast as if they were determined to exorcise the ghosts of that night. Arsenal nearly took the lead in the opening seconds after a through ball from Guendouzi had prised open the Brighton defence and freed Pepe on the right. Pepe crossed to the back post where P i e r r e - E mer i c k Au b a meymey aa nn gg attempted to hook it past Matat Ryan with an acrobatic bicycle kick but could only hit it wide.
In contrast to the way mo s t of the other matches have unfolded since the restart, the game started fast. Both sides pressed forward and Arsenal went close again after 15 minutes when Bukayo Saka ran forward from midfield, collected a return ball from Alexandre Lacazette and crashed a rightfoot drive against the face of the crossbar.
Brighton enjoyed plenty of possession in the Arsenal half but could not convert any of it into chances and, after half an hour, it was the visitors who went close once again. Saka, who was having a fine game, got free on the left and curled in a cross that bounced up invitingly for Lacazette in the six-yard box. Lacazette stooped to head it goalwards but Ryan threw himself to his left to palm it away. It was a fine save but Lacazette should have scored.
Five minutes before half- time, Arsenal’s injury woes grew even worse when Leno was hurt. The goalkeeper rushed to the right side of his area to collect a high ball and Maupay, aware that Leno’s momentum might carry him out of the box, leapt with him to try to put him off. There was no malice in the challenge but it had a calamitous effect. Play was held up for five minutes while Leno was treated.
Eventually, he was carried from the pitch on a stretcher, jabbing his finger angrily at Maupay as he went.
He was replaced by Emiliano Martinez and the young Argentine proved his worth immediately when he got down well to a fierce drive from Aaron Mooy and claimed it cleanly as Brighton’s forwards waited to pounce on any rebound.
In the stoppage time resulting from Leno’s injury, Arsenal forced one more chance. Aubameyang and Lacazette linked well and Lacazette’s backheel appeared to have put his strike partner in on goal until Adam Webster snuffed out the danger with a superb interception. Early in the second half, Lacazette was booked for a late challenge on Ryan but fortunately the Brighton keeper recovered without needing treatment. At the other end, Martinez beat away a close-range shot from Maupay.
Ryan had saved again from Aubameyang and it had seemed that maybe it was going to be another bleak day for Arsenal when Pepe broke the deadlock out of nowhere midway through the half. He received the ball on the right and then cut inside his marker into the box before unleashing a curling leftfoot shot that flew beyond Ryan’s leap and into the roof of the net.
Arsenal’s lead only lasted seven minutes. They lost concentration at a Brighton corner and the home team worked the ball well along the byline to substitute Solly March. He drilled the ball into the six-yard box, Maupay got a touch and when Rob Holding tried to clear it, it rebounded off Lewis Dunk and over the line.
In the fifth and final minute of injury time, Maupay allowed a ball from substitute Alexis MacAllister to run through his legs and then ran to Aaron Connolly’s pass. He got to the ball before Martinez and lifted it expertly over him and into the net.