Arsenal v Brighton the form guide from when Brighton were 9 places above AFC.

By Bulldog Drummond

• How Brighton can put in more tackles than Arsenal without having a foul called
• Arsenal injuries, the size of the squad, and past matches against Brighton

Let’s take a look at how the two teams have been doing recently.  The last six games shows Arsenal have sunk to fifth because of our defeats to Crystal Palace and Liverpool.  And incidentally, I should add that one of the websites that publish last six results seems to have problems with its software giving us two wins, one draw and three defeats in the last six.   Of course it may have been corrected if you go and look at it now, but we really have won four and lost two of the last six.

In fact our last games show this for the top five clubs and then I have added Brighton who are on a bit of a bad run… Thanks to TWTD for keeping their site accurate.

				H	O	M	E			A	W	A	Y
Pos	Team	P		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	6		4	0	0	12	1		2	0	0	4	0		15	18
2	Tottenham Hotspur	6		3	0	0	13	2		2	0	1	8	3		16	15
3	Chelsea	6		2	0	1	4	4		3	0	0	8	1		7	15
4	Manchester City	6		1	0	1	6	4		3	1	0	7	0		9	13
5	Arsenal	6		2	0	1	4	3		2	0	1	4	5		0	12
20	Brighton and Hove	6		0	1	4	0	9		0	0	1	1	2		-10	1

But of course, as is oft pointed out, six is a small number of games to measure, so what about if we do the last ten games?

				H	O	M	E			A	W	A	Y
Pos	Team	P		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	10		6	0	0	17	1		4	0	0	8	1		23	30
2	Manchester City	10		3	0	1	9	4		4	2	0	10	2		13	23
3	Manchester United	10		3	3	0	8	4		2	1	1	9	8		5	19
4	Newcastle United	10		3	0	0	6	2		3	1	3	7	9		2	19
5	Arsenal	10		3	1	2	7	6		3	0	1	5	5		1	19
20	Brighton and Hove	10		0	2	4	1	10		1	1	2	4	5		-10	6

We are also down to fifth across the last ten games, showing three defeats, these being to Manchester City, Liverpool and Crystal Palace.

In fact if we go back to 15 October 2021 we find Brighton and Hove Albion were a top-four club, while Arsenal were 13th, and closer to relegation (in terms of the number of points) than to a top-four finish.  Let’s just look at the table as a whole, rather than dividing home and away, which gives less clarity the further we go back.

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Chelsea	8	6	1	1	16	3	13	19
2	Liverpool	8	5	3	0	22	6	16	18
3	Manchester City	8	5	2	1	16	3	13	17
4	Brighton and Hove Albion	8	4	3	1	8	5	3	15
5	Manchester United	8	4	2	2	16	10	6	14
6	Everton	7	4	2	1	13	8	5	14
7	Brentford	8	3	3	2	10	7	3	12
8	Wolverhampton Wanderers	8	4	0	4	8	8	0	12
9	Tottenham Hotspur	7	4	0	3	6	10	-4	12
10	West Ham United	7	3	2	2	14	10	4	11
11	Leicester City	8	3	2	3	13	14	-1	11
12	Aston Villa	8	3	1	4	12	12	0	10
13	Arsenal	7	3	1	3	5	10	-5	10

What is interesting here is that this league table was built after Arsenal and Brighton and Hove had played out a goalless draw at their ground and it is one of the reasons why we are always so keen to look for trends.

Arsenal went on to win four and draw one of their next five games, while Brighton drew three and lost two, and after that little run, we were above Brighton, and still heading upward.

So what is Brighton all about?

There was a telling moment in their home game with Norwich, in which both teams had lost all six of their previous League games.  A cross came over and “Norwich’s Sam Byram’s arm came up to slap the ball clear as if he was swatting away a fly. Penalty. All their defensive graft undone by one lapse in concentration.