Arsenal’s Trip To Brighton Previewed

The return to football didn’t exactly work out well for Arsenal on Wednesday night when they were well beaten away to City. They were already struggling to withstand a dominant City when David Luiz had a brain freeze and handed them two goals as well as bagging himself a red card. It left us with nowhere to go and we were lucky not to lose by more than the three goals City put past us.

The excuse offered by Luiz after the game beggared belief and it’s difficult to understand how he could have been in the match day squad given his state of mind. He might not have started the game, but the early injuries to Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari meant he came on along with Dani Ceballos. His subsequent suspension along with the injury to Mari severely limits our choices in the centre of our defence for the rest of the season.

Elsewhere Mesut Ozil didn’t even make the match day squad despite 20 players making the trip and it leaves questions to be answered about him too. We didn’t get to see record buy Nicolas Pepe at all despite our complete lack of penetration in attack and the more you think about the game the worse the conclusions you draw about it. I realise different players would have been at different levels after the lockdown, but I found the decisions on both players by Mikel Arteta puzzling to say the least. That’s not to say I don’t think Arteta is the right man for the job as I think he will turn us around, but it’s going to be a slow and sometimes painful task.

At least we have the chance to bounce back quickly away to Brighton this afternoon and it’s a game we just have to win if we are to keep any hopes of catching the top five alive. On the plus side we have played a competitive game since the lockdown and Brighton haven’t which might just give us an edge. However, that game didn’t go well to say the least and it can’t have done much to build confidence.

I think Arteta will have to make a few changes to refresh the team as well as shaking things up a bit. He will have to bring someone in to play alongside Shkodran Mustafi in the centre of the defence and I suppose Sokratis Papastathopoulos is the obvious choice while Rob Holding could get the nod too. Kieran Tierney looked pretty good filling in there when Luiz was sent off at City and it meant Bukayo Saka was able to play at left back too. I think we’ll see Sokratis in the team and who would have believed only a few months ago that Mustafi would become our most reliable central defender.

Hopefully Xhaka will overcome his injury to take his place in the team as our options without him are very limited. Maybe Lucas Torreira will be ready to play, but I doubt it which should mean Matteo Guendouzi plays again. I thought he was one of our better players against City, but maybe that’s because some of the others did so little.

Without Ozil we have absolutely no creativity in our midfield, but I doubt if we’ll see him play and it’s hard to know what the future holds for him at Arsenal. It’s been so long since we saw the best of Ozil, but he performs best with good players around him and he’s been starved of them far too often at Arsenal. Even taking that into account his output has deteriorated immensely and his future at the club has to be in doubt. 

He won’t be going anywhere though as it would be impossible to offload him in the current climate given the enormity of his wages. I would love to see him back in the team at his very best, but good performances from him have become few and far between and it’s telling to see Arteta follow the example of both Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery in leaving  him out of tough away fixtures. If he doesn’t play it leaves room for Joe Willock or Ceballos to complete the midfield. 

I think we will have to see a change in attack too, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has to be in from the start with the other places up for grabs. I would like to see Gabriel Martinelli and Pepe in the team and I hope they can offer more in attack than the team did against City if they get the chance. Despite our shortcomings against City we still have some pretty good players and we should be favourites to win against Brighton.

Aubameyang wasn’t exactly impressive against City, but he is our best player and without him in it the team look highly unlikely to score. We’re going to have to find a way to score more goals if we’re going to climb the table and he’s our best hope of doing that. Who knows where he will be plying his trade next season, but it’s beginning to look like it won’t be at Arsenal.

I was full of hope with the season coming back, but it didn’t take long for Arsenal to crush that hope. I’m trying to believe in the team ahead of Brighton and I know they’re capable of taking the three points, but they will need to show so much more than they did at City. If they don’t win I honestly think it will be time to throw in the towel in our quest for a top five finish and hope we can win the FA Cup.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.