Arsenal’s game against Brighton did not go as planned, but they were fortunate not to lose. The North Londoners led 1-0 at halftime thanks to a Kai Havertz goal in the 38th minute, which he scored with a fantastic lob over the Brighton custodian.
I bet the boys in red and white were keen to add a second and even a third in the second half, but things didn’t go as planned. Four minutes into the second half, Declan Rice received his second yellow card, reducing Arsenal to ten. If any team had fewer players, it would always be at a disadvantage against a talented team like Brighton.
Well, the Seagulls did get their equaliser, but Arsenal, who also tried to fight for a win, remained compact and denied them a chance to win the game. Many people have discussed how Arsenal could have approached the game differently after losing a man early in the second half.
There is an argument that if Arteta had Gabriel Jesus on the bench (if he wasn’t injured) or had purchased a striker to replace Nketiah, Arsenal would have had a chance to win. It is disappointing that no backup striker was available on the bench.
With Rice out, Arteta could have deployed Havertz in midfield. With the German in midfield, the missing striker option may have led the attack in a 4-4-1 formation. While we applaud Sterling’s arrival, we should have signed a striker as soon as Jesus sustained an injury and Nketiah’s departure received approval.
With a killer no. 9, tell me how Arsenal wouldn’t have won that game 2-1.
Darren N
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Ridiculous. Of course, when clubs go down to 10 men they usually bring on a striker. How could Arsenal not have won that game with 10 men? Really?
Take away our best player Havertz and we might have lost 0-1.
I don’t understand some arsenal fans. From the time I started watching football, when a team goes down to 10 men, that team brings on a defender to help them from conceding. Except that team is playing a lower level team. Brighton is not a Sunday league team. Every top 4 team will struggle against them when playing with 10 men. Some fans didn’t even see how Partey defending all over pitch after Declan,s dismissal. They said he was useless. The man was covering for two positions.
When Havertz scored the goal I thought “Awesome. That’s a good striker’s goal. Maybe I was wrong being so obsessed with getting a new striker all this time” but the result proved me wrong. Arsenal do need an out-an-out finisher that can consistently convert more of the chances. It won’t stop people being idiots and getting sent-off now-and-again but it will certainly help in tight games where an opportunistic goal can change the whole complexion of the game. Saka & Odegaard have often been the guys to deliver that, but it’ the CF that should be the main danger in that respect. He’s usually the closest to goal.
You speak of a finisher who can convert more of the chances but that only works when you are creating loads of chances which we are not,at the moment. That is one area I think City are better than us. Haaland misses a ton of chances but it doesn’t matter because his teammates keep creating chance after chance.
For instance,I don’t remember many chances being created even before the red card. The only chance Havertz didn’t score is the one he created himself,battling defenders under pressure and getting a shot away without much support and the keeper made a good save.
I don’t think it’s our finishing that needs to improve. I think it’s our chance creation from open play that needs to improve. I believe having Merino would improve our chance creation so we don’t have to rely too much on Odegaard for creativity. Relying on Odegaard and Saka for creativity means if they are out of form or marked out of the game then we can’t create much.
I think Haaland being at City has thrown off every good striker’s fan value out of the window. There is no other Haaland, never was never will be. Though I won’t go as far as claiming he is at Messi’s or Ronaldo’s level, in terms of overall package, but he will certainly go past their goal tally easily in the future. Mind you, Ronaldo and Messi aren’t traditional number 9 so we must acknowledge how big their achievements have been considering their goal tally. But Haaland will surpass those tally no doubt.
But Haaland has made all other good strikers look like they are bad in general public opinion. A good striker is not supposed to be like Haaland, he is not the benchmark of a good striker. In terms of pure goalscoring ability, he is in his own league and then there are great and good strikers. And whoever we brought as our CF, wouldn’t even come close to match Haaland’s numbers, nowhere nearby. Havertz can get 20 goals and about 30 GA a season if he takes penalties as well. But he won’t be scoring back-to-back hattricks in this league, in fact no striker out there can even dream of it.
If you see Arsenal’s and City’s game, one glaring difference that I see is City ae able to provide such good chances for Haaland, giving him the maximum possibility of scoring, and we are nowhere near that still.
I was frustrated watching the game against Brighton that none of our CBs or other midfielders even dare to attempt a daring pass forward, except Partey. There were many occasions that Saliba and Gabriel were locked up in a ping pong game and Partey had to drop deep and ask the ball so he could play forward. Only Partey was looking for such passes, and with such mentality, our forwards are not going to get enough clear-cut chances to score. Even Haaland misses a clear-cut chance every now and then, so we got to cut some slack on our forwards. He missed a clear header against West Ham last game, but he was always provided with such amazing positions to shoot clear at goals so many times it doesn’t matter when he misses a chance. Btw, his second goal against west ham was filthy. I think with Merino and Calafiori in the first XI, we will have more chances in the final third that’s for sure. But our players need to look forward to attempting those daring passes more. Otherwise, we can’t catch City if we are not able to create more goal scoring chances. Changing strikers will not change that imo. Not much to matter unfortunately.
Thank you for this post. I thought I was the only one who has seeing the ping pong game between our defenders.
This IMHO gives the opposition team to organize themselves.
It’s a recurring issue and Arteta needs to address it.
I have a similar opinion Daulat. You can’t expect a striker to score when you are feeding him scraps. Haaland misses lots of clear cut chances but it doesn’t matter because his teammates will create more. Also agree that Haaland’s efficiency has skewed how we view strikers. There’s no one like him in football today. The crazy part is that other aspects of his game are quite quite ordinary,even below average.
I agree that Calafiori and Merino increase our chance creation. Opponents know that we rely heavily on our right side to create chances. That is why sometimes they mark Saka and Odegaard and with that goes our creativity. If they have to worry about the left side as well,it will open up the pitch nicely for us.
Most of our players showed a lack of composure with the ball. At times they just needed to calm down,look up and pick a pass.By the way, I thought Jorginho is another player who could have helped to help with the pressure and organise his younger teammates.
Daulat, Olivia Dunham, and Onyango – Great to read your spot on learned opinions, thank you.
Haaland doesn’t need to be better in every aspect of the game at City. He just needs to put every 3 out of 5 big chances he gets, and City midfield is capable of doing that from varying distances. They guarantee Haaland gets at least 5 to 6 big chances every game, and he does what he does. I am absolutely bamboozled seeing the City players cover so much space and press so diligently without Haaland doing much to help. City technically play with 10 men with Haaland waiting for those big chances to score. And City don’t have the youngest players at all, far from it. It’s admirable. I look at Bernardo, Debruyne, and now Gundogan, all senior players, pressing mad. It’s amazing to watch them. And every City player is capable of finding those key passes from anywhere in the pitch. That’s what makes Haaland even more terrifying and almost inevitable.
We sorely lack that. I think our midfielders and defenders are too held back for whatever reason, they seem almost afraid to make the wrong pass, not what we want with the kind of forwards we have. We need Calafiori asap in the lineup really. He seems to be the kind to dare. Gabriel and Saliba wait for eternity to find a forward pass, not that they can’t technically, but just won’t do it. They lack conviction. Neither does Rice and white. That’s not good. I think we need to blend youthful, almost naively daring players like Myles, Nwaneri in the mix with our experienced lot every game, something like Rico Lewis for the City. Too much cautiousness hamper our forwards conviction as well as confidence. If Havertz has in his mind that I am only going to get just 2 good chances all game, he is bound to be under way more pressure to make it count and that’s not good. Haaland is confident he will get at least 5 good chances each game, I just need to score at least 3 out of them. That’s a very reassuring thought for a striker. Our attacking midfielders as well as forwards need to be very direct in finding gaps and take less touches. Our every player is a high touch player and that just kills every forward momentum or counterattack chances.
Well said Daulat.We might well have won the game had our centre backs been able to deal with the long ball from Dunk.Given their consistent form last season, I have been disappointed with the errors they have made in our first 3 matches, but hopefully they will have sharpened up for the demanding sequence of away games after the international break.
I don’t understand why people get so worked up for even asking a question about a striker. It never ceases to amaze me how how we attack each other when asking questions or expressing opinions.
We have a 6th goalie brought in, a 4th LB, and it barely raises a question with some.
Sterling is the only legit backup for Saka in 5 years, but only a few asking why it took so long.
Why the club seemingly goes out of it’s way to avoid bring in a clinical specialist striker; and it’s almost taboo to ask why?
We get so worked up and harsh sometimes with each other, why? Reading comments on various threads it’s hard to tell we are all fans of the same club at times.
i thought school went back today, must be a staggered start
10 man Arsenal holding on for a draw against a very good Brighton who smelt blood
congrats on the least informed football novice nonsense I have ever read on JA, and that’s saying something
I know we’ll likely get a steady diet of articles express dismay over not having a magic striker available every time anything goes wrong but this was certainly a stretch to say the least.
It’s not a “magic” striker, it’s a striker. Clearly, there were strikers available in the ten weeks of the summer window, but Edu didn’t bring one in. He’s paid to make those decisions, but we’ll only know if it turns out to be the right decision on the evidence across the whole season next May. Let’s hope it is.
Oh, my mistake after reading the articles and comments. We’ll never know the impact or lack thereof of Edu not bringing in whoever as a striker when apparently in your opinion he could have done so.
name them Bertie!
facts are no club in Europe wanted Osimhen, Gyrokeres or Toney
facts
Edu is paid to make decisions, and he made his decision…the same decision every club in Europe made
wake up, every club in Europe also did not want Osimhen, Gyrokeres or Toney
why cane Edu and Arsenal???
come on Bertie, name them
If Chris Kavanagh ha not been so blinkered with his interpretation of the rule about kicking the ball away and perhaps we would have been able to win he game with Rice, rather than without him. Ut is not like he belted the ball in into the top row of the stands it could not have travelled more than a foot. I hope that Arsenal make an official complaint about the standard of referreing on Saturday. Javanagh was blinkered and I hope he gets relegated down to the lower leagues to thik about his referreing standards
yawn