Arteta’s Half Time Team Talk Ignites Arsenal

Brighton 0 Arsenal 1
Premier League
Tuesday 29th December 2020 6pm 

So a classic game of two halves, as Arsenal’s no-show in the opening 45 minutes at Brighton went unpunished thanks to the inability of the home side’s forwards. The Seagulls have apparently only won a solitary Premier League home match during the year of 2020, and Gooners, Bernd Leno and Matteo Guendouzi will remember that particular occasion all too well. The Gunners were so poor in the opening half last night, you could easily have had an unfortunate and possibly unique double happening at the Amex.

Fair play to Mike Arteta for retaining the side, specifically the youngsters, that had served him so well on Boxing Day, with the exception of Alex Lacazette, perhaps a little unfortunate to make way for the fit again Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. However, his players didn’t initially deliver. Brighton offered a different style to Chelsea, more conservative. They are known as draw specialists and you could see why. Organized in defence, minimizing risks by selectively getting numbers forward. Arsenal, lacking the drive and thrust we saw in their previous outing, struggled to create much in the way of chances. Not only that, but the incompetence of Elneny presented the opposition with more than one opportunity to score. At times, the Egyptian can be a liability. 

Given the growing number of positive COVID tests amongst the various football clubs, you do wonder whether or not Arsenal will be able to continue playing during January, not least because however careful they are to prevent the spread of the virus, they are dependent on the opposition doing the same. One game has already been postponed, Tottenham v Fulham this evening is in the balance. God alone knows how this might be resolved if it gets worse – as seems likely. Is it too late to scrap the FA Cup this season? 

Still, at least if things do grind to a halt, Arsenal can look back on a far more convincing 45 minutes than the opening half yesterday, as they came out with a very different, far more aggressive approach after the interval, presumably fired up by the manager’s half-time words. They took the game to Brighton far more, with Smith Rowe and Saka especially influential, the opposition collecting yellow cards trying to stop the former. Gabriel Martinelli – who had played well in the second half, but is short of match fitness – was replaced by Lacazette after 66 minutes and the impact was immediate, as he took advantage of Bukayo Saka’s work and picked out the kind of finish the club broke their transfer record for back in 2017. We haven’t seen that kind of clinical finishing often enough, but it made the difference in this match. 

We had the entrance of pantomime villain Neil Maupay, although I was surprised Danny Welbeck was not thrown into the mix at any point against his old club. Brighton tried to get the goal back, but their best chances had been in the first half, and Arsenal saw the game out without serious threat on their goal. Two wins in a row is encouraging, but the way the first half went is cause for concern, given Brighton’s position in the table. Arteta’s side needed a half-time team talk to dominate this game, but it’s not the first time we have seen that under this manager. Maybe he needs to watch 45 minutes to work out what is required against different opposition? 

Arsenal were fortunate in having a day’s extra rest than Brighton, and Graham Potter did make a lot of changes to his own starting eleven. But key was that the young players Arteta retained faith in came good and made a big impact in this game. The energy and drive that Saka, Smith Rowe and Martinelli bring to the side has been noticeably absent far too often during that wretched run that followed the win at Old Trafford on 1st November. I do hope the manager retains faith in these lads. West Brom away next, who suffered a 5-0 home defeat to Leeds as the Gunners were making hard work of beating Brighton. One suspects Sam Allardyce’s priorities will be focusing on defence by Saturday, when the teams meet for an 8pm kick off. Let us hope that the verve of Arsenal’s youngsters can unpick the Baggies’ lock, buoyed by their second half performance last night. I wouldn’t be too worried if Elneny were replaced though – either by Ceballos, or maybe even Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who might be worth looking at in the centre of midfield again. 

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