Arteta’s back-up boys exit League Cup at the first time of asking

 

Arsenal 1 Brighton 3 
League Cup 3rd Round 
Wednesday 9th November 2022 7.45pm   

So after a long run of home victories across two other competitions, Arsenal suffered defeat in the League Cup game. Mikel Arteta would have probably liked to progress in this tournament to give his second choice players more match time – and only William Saliba started from the victory over Chelsea last weekend. He might have faced a dilemma if they had reached the semi-finals, but I suspect we’d have seen similar lineups in the next two rounds if Arsenal had beaten Brighton. 

The visiting side took a similar approach, with only two players retained from their match against Wolves on Saturday. So it more or less turned out as a case of ‘our reserves are better than yours’. Ultimately, Arsenal failed to regain their lead in a storming start to the second half, and after weathering that, Brighton took control of the match. 

Things looked promising with the move that led to the home side taking the lead after 19 minutes, following a fantastic penetrating run from Reiss Nelson, who teed up Eddie Nketiah for a sweet curling finish. 

Calamity followed with an equalizer not long after, as the young Estonian stand-in keeper Karl Hein slipped up as a ball he would otherwise have reached comfortably was played through ahead of Danny Welbeck. By the time Hein got up, he was only able to bring down the ex-Arsenal forward, and there was no debate about the award of the spot kick. Welbeck took the penalty himself and made no mistake.

Nketiah almost restored his side’s advantage after the re-start, but hit the post from distance, and the Gunners’ dominance was not turned into goals in spite of the opportunities they created. It can’t be ignored that in the last nine matches – five of which have been cup games with a good number of second stringers – Arsenal have only scored more than a single goal once, against Forest. You do have to wonder if they should be looking at a goalscorer in the January window, as well as more dominant cover for Thomas Partey than the current options. Arteta brought on both Martinelli and Jesus to try and find another goal, but it was Brighton who proved more clinical.

I was watching the game sitting next to the Highbury Spy, and when the Seagulls brought on Mitoma as a sub on the left side of the midfield after the interval, he told me the lad was known as the Japanese Messi. We’ll certainly be seeing him in the World Cup (although that might not be the case for Messi himself if his injury woes are not resolved). He put Brighton ahead just before the hour with a finish that was very similar to Nketiah’s goal, at the end of a good Brighton move. I’d say Hein could have done better for the next one – scored by left back Lamptey in the 70th minute, as it seemed to go under his body as he came out to attempt a save. I know Matt Turner had suffered a groin injury, and in fairness to the player, Arteta may not have wanted to risk playing him and aggravating it – given his involvement with the USA team at the World Cup. But in that case, what was he doing on the bench? Hein had an evening to forget. 

Arsenal did have 19 minutes plus injury time to try and find two goals that would give them a chance from a shoot-out, but Brighton proved expert at killing momentum with the kind of tactics we see from Arteta’s men when they are ahead in a game. And after surviving the spell after the interval, they defended well, in spite of the Gunners also bringing on Zinchenko and Xhaka to boost the team’s chances of creating something. 

None of the back-up players looked particularly impressive. The forwards did okay in spells, but ultimately an attack is judged on goals. And as stated earlier, the club are going through a patch where ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ looks like the only way they will win matches. Just one more hurdle to negotiate before everyone packs up and takes a break until Boxing Day…. although there will be the last 16 round of this competition in the midweek before Christmas for those teams that did qualify. I believe there may be a training camp planned for Dubai at some stage, and at least Arteta can now look at week after the World Cup concludes as an option for that.

The trip to Wolves comes on Saturday evening, and this game will be quickly forgotten. Three points in the West Midlands is more important, given the priorities this season, which was reflected in the selection of the team that lost yesterday evening. With the game not being on the season tickets outside of club level and the boxes – the attendance felt bigger than any other game so far this season – as people who had tickets had deliberately chosen to pay for them on the basis of attending. And even club level was pretty full. So very healthy to see the extent of the interest in the team, and of course, the pricing policy helps there too. Just a shame the players couldn’t deliver a win, but in the long run, that may prove to be a blessing in disguise. 

A final word for Brighton – given their resources, they have put together an impressive squad. With or without Graham Potter, they stand 6th in the table, ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool. 

To be notified when there is fresh content on my blog (generally the day after matches), follow me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/KevinWhitcher01