Arsenal v Brighton Preview

We all hoped the Freddie Ljungberg time in charge at the club would get off to a good start at Norwich on Sunday and for the first half hour it looked like it might just do. However, Norwich scored first and all of our frailties were laid bare for all to see. To their credit the players did at least manage to come back from behind twice to get a 2-2 draw, but it was definitely another two points dropped. Norwich probably deserved all three points by the end of the game though and we were thankful to Bernd Leno for the one point we did get.

We have now played all of the bottom three clubs and failed to beat any of them with 2-2 draws away to Watford and Norwich and at home to Southampton. To be honest we were more than a little fortunate to emerge with a draw from each of those games and it says an awful lot about where we are as a team. There’s a scrap developing for fifth place in the Premier League and it looks like that’s the very best we can achieve this season as it stands.

Defensively we’re an absolute shambles and it just doesn’t look like changing. No matter what defenders we pick they continue to make wrong decisions both individually and collectively. They’re not helped by our midfield making the exact same errors when it comes to the defensive part of their game.

I had hoped Freddie would have picked Nicolas Pepe at Norwich, but from what he said there seems to be some issue with Pepe and he’s carried on Unai Emery’s policy of not giving him even a minute to play. It’s just as well we didn’t splash out a club record fee on him last summer I suppose. As I’ve said before I’d like to see Pepe play wide right of a front three with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang through the middle and Gabriel Martinelli on the left.

Surely a home game against a Brighton team who don’t travel well can afford us an opportunity to play an attacking team with loads of pace. They might have put up a good show in losing 2-1 at Liverpool on Saturday, but Brighton have only taken one point in their last six away games. They’re definitely more adventurous than they were last season, but we should be far too good for them at home if we approach the game in the right way.

I’d love to see both Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney as the full backs if they’re fit enough to play and Lucas Torreira given the job of anchoring the midfield. I think a team built around those three with the attacking trio I mentioned has to be able to get our first win in seven league games. Of course having Mesut Ozil to supply the ammunition for the front three would be great too and the fact Freddie picked him on Sunday is promising.

I expect a much better atmosphere at the Emirates tonight which will hopefully make it a little easier for the players to play. The chances are Freddie won’t get the gig long term, but hopefully he can turn things around enough to leave things in a reasonably good state for whoever takes over. 

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.