A tricky trip to Brighton to try make it five wins from five
Morning all.
It’s another game away from home today as we visit Brighton for a rare 3pm Saturday kick-off. Mikel Arteta was asked about his defensive injury issues at his press conference yesterday, and without giving too much away, made it sound relatively positive, saying:
We have another session, they are all willing to be part of it. We have another session to try to make sure they are fit.
Willing to be part of it and available for it are two different things. Personally, I’d be happy and surprised if just one of Jurrien Timber, Cristhian Mosquera, Ben White and Piero Hincapie were available. I could be wrong, obviously, but we’ll have to wait and see. The fact that Timber has been selected in the Netherlands squad for the upcoming Interlull might be a hint that his midweek absence was just down to caution rather than anything else, and it would be very useful to have a right-back available to us today.
If not, there’s a tricky decision for the manager. He could shift Ezri Konsa out there, of course, and bring in Riccardo Calafiori at centre-half alongside Gabriel, with Myles Lewis-Skelly at left-back. On Tuesday he started Martin Zubimendi at right-back, Declan Rice has filled that role in the past too and midfield depth means that’s certainly an option, and after an impressive display, could Marli Salmon come into the equation? I do think an away game at Brighton in the Premier League is a very different and more difficult challenge than a much changed Ipswich in the League Cup, but let’s see.
After his goal at Sunderland last week, I think this is a game Bruno Guimaraes will start in midfield, regardless of who might anchor it. That moment is why we paid a lot of money for a 28 year old, and I think having managed his minutes to build his fitness, it would be a common sense decision that he gets the nod today. Beyond that, I think we can all pick the rest, with Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Christos Tzolis all likely to come back into the starting XI.
As for Brighton, we know how tough they are, especially at home, and it’ll be an interesting game from a tactical perspective. We’re a very on the ball team, they’re a team that likes to press high and win turnovers from which they’re very good at creating chances. They are the highest scorers in the league this season (13), no team has created more xG in their four matches so far, and they also have the highest average possession across their four games. That said, they have played against 10 men twice. Last week at Coventry the red card came early in the second half, and in their win over Villa Joao Gomes was sent off in the 40th minute, although they were already 4-0 up that point.
There’s been a youthful refresh in their attack, they’ve got some a smattering of experience throughout with the likes of Pascal Gross and Lewis Dunk key cogs in midfield and defence, but I do think we should be looking at the full-back positions as a way of really getting at them. I’m sure that’s something Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff will have talked about, but make no mistake, we’ll have to be on our game this afternoon to take all three points back to North London.
The manager was full of praise for Brighton and Fabian Hurzeler too, saying:
Brighton, I know them really well as a club when they make an appointment and a decision like this is because they’ve done their homework so well. And you can clearly see watching the team play, what they’ve done in the last few years, the way they have evolved their squad as well. I think he’s a top coach and you can clearly see that. They’re a team that is really nice to watch.
I think this is a classic of the Arteta ‘never give the opposition or their fans any fuel’ genre. Last season there were some comments from the Brighton manager about Arsenal and set-pieces, how long it took to take corners and throw-ins etc, and that had a material impact on the crowd that day. Bukayo Saka’s early goal helped us to three very important points, but it was tough going and the home fans were wound up a bit by their manager (which is entirely fair enough, btw).
And it’s not that I don’t think Arteta doesn’t mean what he says here, he knows they’re good and Hurzeler is, despite what we might think of him, a very good coach. It’s just he absolutely will not fall into any kind of pre-game trap that might give the opposition even a scintilla of extra motivation. So, let’s hope he gets his tactics right today, and the performance is enough to make it five wins from five in the Premier League so far this season.
Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. As ever, we’ll bring you live blog coverage of the game later, as well all the post-game stuff on Arseblog News like the match report, player ratings, manager reaction, quotes round-up and more. There’s also a preview podcast on Patreon if you need something to listen to ahead of kick-off.
Catch you later for the game.
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