Arsenal did not come to see the seaside. There were not here to make friends – which was just as well. It was purely about the points. Mission Eyes On The Prize. They accomplished it and then some.
There were 78 minutes on the clock when the travelling support got wind of Nottingham Forest’s equaliser at Manchester City. How they belted out their anthems at that point – about previous title-winning glories – and when it was all over, there was plenty more from them.
“We’re gonna win the league,” they chanted and it was hard to disagree. Their advantage over City at the top of the table is seven points, albeit they have played an extra game. The wobble – two wins in seven – looks over. It is three wins on the bounce; Tottenham, Chelsea and this.
Bukayo Saka got the goal early on – it was a personal disaster for the Brighton goalkeeper, Bart Verbruggen – and, thereafter, Arsenal did what they needed to do. Whatever they needed to do. Nobody manages a game quite like them. Or so the Brighton manager, Fabian Hürzeler, had suggested beforehand. Arsenal merely doubled down on their approach. It was not pretty. “Anti-football,” yelled the Brighton fans by the press box. For the first 65 minutes – basically until Mikel Arteta introduced Kai Havertz – Arsenal barely played.
What they did do was hold firm, Gabriel Magalhães leading an aggressive defensive effort in the absence of William Saliba, who was out with an ankle problem. For Arsenal, the ends justified the means and there was beauty for them in that.
Fabian Hürzeler’s pre-match comments had framed the occasion, conditioning it. “When Arsenal has a corner and they are leading, sometimes they spend over one minute just to take it,” the Brighton manager said. He feels that the rules are not firm enough; their looseness invites the taking of liberties. Hürzeler would rage about how Arsenal took them, pretty much from the moment that Saka scored in the ninth minute. And so did the home crowd.
It was whenever Arsenal took a throw-in or a set-piece. Whenever their players went to ground. Hürzeler was extremely animated in his technical area – too much so for Arteta, who pointed angrily at him at one point midway through the first half. Watching Hürzeler watching the game, living every moment, was exhausting.
It was end-to-end at the outset, Arsenal first threatening when Eberechi Eze released Saka only for his cross to flash across goal with nobody in red there. They went in front when Saka cut inside from the right and shot from the edge of the area. It took a deflection off Carlos Baleba, throwing Verbruggen, and yet it was a bad look when the ball went through his legs. For Arsenal, it was half the job done.
Brighton brought the intensity at the outset and they were almost gifted a goal in the third minute when David Raya missed a pass to Declan Rice and found only Baleba. One-on-one with Raya, Baleba went for the lobbed finish but he did not get enough on it, allowing Gabriel to head clear.
Kaoru Mitoma was denied by Gabriel’s block while Georginio Rutter shot at his own teammate, Ferdi Kadioglu, after a good combination between the pair. That was in the 19th minute and the remainder of the half was largely about Arsenal drawing the sting from the contest, Hürzeler hopping about as though he had been stung.
Arsenal were in no hurry to restart the second half, holding a team huddle on the pitch – which obviously delighted the Brighton support. Brighton set about upping the tempo, regenerating some sort of rhythm. It is not easy against this Arsenal team.
Rutter was lively. He could not get enough purchase on a header when well-placed in the 47th minute and there was the moment when he extended Raya with a side-on blast. The goalkeeper stayed down after the save for treatment. When he got up, he held his left shoulder. He had dived to his right. It was not the only time that Raya went down, Hürzeler unable to cope with the frustration.
Brighton played on the front foot. They pushed. The substitute Yankuba Minteh almost got a low cross to work while Mats Wieffer misdirected a free header – a big chance wasted.
Arsenal stuck to the game plan. They knew that a clean sheet equalled glory. If they could pinch something at the other end, so much the better. Havertz almost did after Rice had robbed Baleba. The Brighton midfielder got back to thwart him. Another Arsenal substitute, Leandro Trossard, got his finish all wrong shortly afterwards while Havertz worked Verbruggen towards the very end. Arsenal’s celebrations after the final whistle were wild, the dreams running in similar fashion. The Brighton fans jeered some more.
