Brighton v Arsenal: what past results and form tell us about this afternoon

by Bulldog Drummond

Brighton have been on a very poor run since the start of the year, and although they might have been expected to lose to Chelsea, a home cup defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, and home draws with Aston Villa and Watford show a decline in confidence as well as form.

In all they have played 10, won none, drawn six and lost four.  Only once have they scored more than one goal.

In normal times this would look like a dead cert Arsenal win against a club in a poor run, but these are far from normal times.  Arsenal have had three managers in three years and have spent much of that time with significant crowd discontent undoubtedly unsettling the team.

But despite this Arsenal were undefeated until the game against Manchester City where two early injuries not only threw the balance of the side out, but also left them playing their first ghost game with a totally disrupted XI – and then X.

Overall this year it has been played 12, won seven,  drawn four and lost one

In terms of the games between the two teams, this is a fixture one would always expect Arsenal to win but as the table below shows, the regular change of managers and crowd negativity has left Arsenal not winning any of the last four games against Brighton and Hove.

In terms of away game, Arsenal have won two, drawn eight and lost four showing that the poor away form of the last three years has still not been overcome.

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