By Tony Attwood
- Arsenal injuries ahead of tonight’s game against Brighton
- Brighton v Arsenal tonight: the referee and the problem of home v away games
- Brighton v Arsenal: the games between the two clubs and recent form
For tonight’s game the Standard predict a 2-0 Arsenal victory.and although offering us a headline that says “Team news” don’t actually make or at least don’t publish a prediction for the team. Mind you this data stuff can be rather time consuming and their journalists might have had to knock off for lunch before me.
But mfootball to whom I don’t think we have turned to before for a line up prediction come up with
Raya
Timber Saliba Gabriel Hincappe
Zubemendi Rice
Saka Eze Trossard
Gyokeres
And so we push onto the Metro which comes up with
Raya
Timber Saliba Gabriel Califiori
Rice Zubemendi Eze
Saka Gyokeres Trossard
Many of the familiar names of course but a shuffling around the pitch, quite possibly to make everyone think that these journalist have been doing some real live research rather than making things up. Not that one would ever accuse journalists of making things up.
Sports Mole have done a bit of hunting for unlikely statistics and come up with the notion that a combination of David Raya heroics and the offside flag, Arsenal held out for victory on a day where they equaled the record for the most corner goals in a single Premier League season with 16 – it is seemingly only a matter of time before the unprecedented 17th arrives.”
Sadly we don’t seem to get bonus points for the most goals from a corner, and personally I think this is typical of the bias shown against Arsenal by the Premier League (who don’t give bonus points for this sort of thing) and the media who would protest if they did.
Arsenal’s away form is starting to get the occasional (and it is still just occasional) mention (unbeaten in the last 11 away matches) but there is always a negative to be had and in this regard it is that Arsenal have only ” averaged 1.2 goals per game in Premier League away contests between August and December, compared to 2.3 per match since the turn of the year.”
But it is being noted that Brighton and Hove have not won three Premier League games all season even though they are securely mid-table. But they have only lost at home twice so far in this campaign and that gives the journos a thought that this could be a rocky ride for Arsenal not least because Brighton held Arsenal “to a 1-1 stalemate on home turf a little over a year ago.” Personally I am not that sure that this counts for much but we shall see.
And so after much deliberation Sports Mole come up with
Raya;
Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Havertz, Zubimendi, Lewis-Skelly;
Saka, Gyokeres, Martinelli
I find the issue of Martinelli interesting, since to my eyes when he has come on as a sub he has really tormented the opposition and brought Arsenal to life when once or twice they have been wilting.
Now that of course might be the ploy, but I also think Martinelli has a lot to offer from the off and I do like to see him start. But obviously Arteta knows best and has access to much more data than I do. Sports Mole go for a 1-2 win to Arsenal.
Meanwhile it is interesting that the media has decided to lay off criticizing Arsenal’s choice of a centre forward and the number of goals he scores, managing to get through the whole latest anti-Arsenal campaign without actually noticing that Arsenal have spent much of the season as the team most likely to score in any particular match.
As you might have noted here before, Arsenal are the top scoring team in the league, Arsenal have the best defence in the league, and put together than means Arsenal have the best goal difference in the league. But is this mentioned much? No. Is it mentioned at all? Well in some publications, again no.
And just in case you thought I was mucking around with the statistics again, Arsenal have also won the most and lost the least number of games this season, which pretty much seems to sum it all up.
So let us sum it all up with a comparison of where we have been in recent years after 29 games.. The goals are better than last year but not as good as 2023 or 2024. The defence however remains the best across the last four seasons at this stage. The goal difference is better than lasts year and the points total is six better than after 29 games last season, but we have not reached the heights of 2023 – except again we have a better defence.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal 2026 | 29 | 19 | 7 | 3 | 58 | 22 | 36 | 64 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2025 | 29 | 16 | 10 | 3 | 53 | 24 | 29 | 58 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2024 | 29 | 20 | 5 | 4 | 70 | 24 | 46 | 65 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2023 | 29 | 23 | 3 | 3 | 70 | 27 | 43 | 72 |
As we have so often noted – each season plays out in its own way, with different teams, and different numbers of teams, reaching for the top position.
Here’s to Arsenal finding a way to win via any kind of set piece . Just to rile up all those brain dead anti Arsenal journalists , experts, purists and pundits.
One shot on goal was all it took! Three more points to the Arsenal. Man. City drop two and it’s out of their hands.
Good result, some outstanding defending – Gabriel immense, Hincapie, Mosquera very good, Raya very good (apart from the wayward pass early on.
However, not at all enjoyable to watch – poor at winning and keeping possession, just seemed to settle for holding on to one-goal lead. Hope that things improve for future matches
4 away Premier League games, 4 ‘home’ referees, 8 points, not bad at all! The Wolves score looks much better now than it did at the time…
Just read an agenda driven match report from the BBC , toeing the line of if Arsenal win the league they will please no one but their own fans .
The hate for Arsenal is growing , none of the best teams know how to win ugly , just derision .
No media comment either on the fact that MC second goal against Forest was from a corner.
Brighton were by far the more dirty team, with Kavanagh not producing yellow cards for them until late in the game (unlike, of course, the yellow card to Mosquera for his first, fairly innocuous foul) Brighton players frequently delayed Arsenal free-kicks (ie the few which the ref bothered to give) without any sanction or warning – unlike Declan Rice last year. Their manager was in the face of the fourth official from the very start of the match and their players were constantly arguing with Kavanagh.
This referee is incompetent, – the recent Aston Villa v Newcastle fiasco looks like part of a familiar pattern with him, only made more pronounced by the complicity of the equally incompetent / visually impaired assistant with the flag. Just the man for PGMOL to allocate to an Arsenal fixture.
Gooner72
The title race was always in our hands with a lead of 5 points, City still had to beat us! Now, we can afford to lose at the Etihad and still be ahead if we win the other matches – not to mention the goal difference advantage.
I see City were upset at the officials again last night as well…
The anti Arsenal media agenda has moved to another level.
Somewhere I’ve seen they’ve got Ruud Gullet calling us cheats.
It’s madness.
Lets say we do grapple at corners and do waste a little time, it’s nothing that other teams haven’t done to us for years, and all we ever got told was to ‘man up’.
As soon as we ‘supposedly’ do it, it gets labelled a ‘dark art’ and we get labelled as cheats.
I understand why people could say we are not the best to watch at the moment, but that’s a lot different to calling us cheats and ruining the entire premiership. And even then, a lot of the times our games are not end to end thrillers because teams just sit deep. I mean how many times have our opponents failed to muster even 1 shot on target?
As we have always said on here the media clearly DO have an anti Arsenal agenda. We didn’t and don’t imagine it. Even Martin Keown called out Talksport on it. They didn’t like it and of course denied it, ironically as they continued to criticise the team sitting top of both PL and CL tables, who are in the LC final and still in the FA Cup.
You couldn’t make it up….but they do!!!
Nitram
When anyone calls the media out on their narrative, their responses are either ‘it’s just a bit of banter’ or ‘get a sense of humour’, as Mr Keown encountered at talkSPORT…
According to OPTA stats the average time taken to get the ball back into play from corners, throw ins, goal kicks and free kicks in last nights game was 31.4 seconds. In the 290 premier league games played so far this season there have been 195 times when this figure has been exceeded which puts last nights figure well below average.
So Mr Hurzeler stop your unjustified winging and shut up.
I really don’t know how Martin Keown puts up with the constant disrespect and ridicule shown to him by Arsenal haters Simon Jordon and the slimy Jim White.
John L
Good points all. In one instance the ref blew the whistle, the players stopped and then a Brighton player kicked the ball out of play. No yellow card not even a warning for time wasting and their manager and the media criticise Arsenal. Also regarding the criticism of Arsenal’s defensive style of play, every match Arsenal play against sides setting up in the low block, crowding the middle and generally not trying to go forward. they sit back and try try to catch Arsenal on the counter. The only time they face an opponent playing an open, attacking style is in Europe, where they are undefeated. Brighton wanted to attack, Arsenal absorbed it and won. What’s the problem?
Mick Shelly
It’s not even this Hurzeler character that’s the problem, it’s the media allowing him to make these unjustifiable claims unchallenged. In other words leaving it out there as if it were a fact.
The f***ing media again.