{"id":10594,"date":"2025-01-05T10:27:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T10:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10594"},"modified":"2025-01-06T10:37:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T10:37:44","slug":"a-melancholic-sussex-by-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10594","title":{"rendered":"A Melancholic Sussex by the Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A trip to Brighton, to jolly old Sussex by the sea. The Amex stadium is in Falmer, in the middle of the facilities of the University of Sussex (where, once upon a time, my old University, including me, used to play an annual two day cricket match, with a night of revelry in Brighton between). As Ned\u2019s excellent preview told, this stadium was built after a long history. From the visiting fans\u2019 perspective, Brighton Council was led by the Greens, and it also had a Green MP. This led to a determination that all fans arriving at the ground should travel by public transport. They backed this up by putting their money where their mouth was. There is a railway station at the ground, and a match ticket gives you a free ride in from either Brighton or Lewes stations. They have also set up two Park & Ride stops. We checked out one of these, conveniently placed at the end of the A23 dual carriageway. It was very well organised, easy to use, free and about a 10 minute ride from the ground. Bravo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So after arriving at the ground we checked out their footy scran. No Harvey\u2019s bitter unfortunately (a crime in this part of the world) but a very acceptable pie and a hot dog, both at prices well below that of the Emirates.  Into the ground, about which I have to disagree with TTG. It is, as Nessa would have said, tidy. It\u2019s also a joy for visiting fans as we get the whole of the South stand behind the goal (unfortunately this is planned to change in the 2026\/27 season to a set up more akin to ours, where the visiting fans are around the corner flag). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team caused some consternation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya,
Partey, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori,
Jorginho, Rice, Merino,
Nwaneri, Trossard, Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subs: Neto, Tierney, Lewis-Skelly, Zinchenko, Kiwior, Odegaard, Kabia, Butler-Oyedeji, Martinelli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some flames, a chorus of Sussex by the sea and we were off. And it wasn\u2019t long before a delightful chip forward by Merino found Nwaneri in space. He drove into the penalty area and forced a shot past the Brighton goalie into the net. That boy does love a goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However that was the best of Nwaneri and for the rest of the half he kept giving the ball away. He was hooked at halftime, with Arteta later saying he had picked up a muscular injury. And for the rest of the half we didn\u2019t really create a chance. We were smothered by the Brighton press and indeed our own errors gave Brighton several good chances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nwaneri was booked for taking too long over a corner. All around me the Arsenal faithful were asking \u201cWhy do we do this?\u201d It gets the home crowd into it, it puts pressure on us and it invites the ref to brandish a yellow card. Of the five yellows collected by Jurien Timber which led to his suspension for this game, two were for time wasting at throw ins. Now, we can argue about the refs but how about we just get on with the game?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half began and we went from bad to worse. On the hour, Merino had a great chance from a clever free kick from Rice which he completely miskicked. Brighton then immediately went up the other end via a long ball, there was a scrum in the box and Saliba caught someone on the head and Taylor gave a penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor, the Brighton manager and VAR were totally convinced it was a penalty. Arteta and the entire MOTD punditry team were convinced it was not. Pedro stuck it away and it was 1-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I am, frankly, bored with discussions about referees and an agenda against us. Because for the whole of the second half we were, quite simply, just not good enough to win this game. We brought on \u00d8degaard and Martinelli. Neither performed well. The whole team seemed to be infected with lethargy. We gave the ball away and lost most 50\/50s. We gave up on chasing balls. We were indecisive, constantly turning backwards when there was green grass in front of us. We totally lost creativity. Set pieces looked to be our best chances, but Brighton left three up at corners, which emptied the box of players and left us unable create our normal chaos theory. That said, a free kick late in the game left Partey completely unmarked, eight yards out. He ballooned his header over the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was this due to injuries? Or maybe the lingering effects of a flu bug in the camp? Or perhaps the fact that Brighton had two additional days rest? Who knows? But it was palpable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This a game to be long forgotten. TTG is calling for reinforcements. It is difficult not to agree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rain\/sleet swept in as we entered the second half. At the end of the game it was only a short walk to the buses. Both sets of fans had stayed until the end, hopeful of a late winner (which, to be honest, looked more likely to come from Brighton). That meant a 40 minute wait to get on the bus, all in the icy cold, pouring sleet. This was not my most enjoyable afternoon following The Arsenal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We finally got to our car and were quickly away. We had planned a curry on the way home but neither of us were in the mood and the weather forecast suggested a difficult journey home. So it proved as proper snow began five miles north of Brighton and stayed with of most of the way home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we now have a cup semi final against a resurgent Newcastle on Tuesday and then an FA Cup third round against a not so resurgent Manchester United. Our season is on the line here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, please, accept the fact that we were not robbed. We just weren\u2019t good enough to win the game. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A trip to Brighton, to jolly old Sussex by the sea. The Amex stadium is in Falmer, in the middle of the facilities of the University of Sussex (where, once upon a time, my old University, including me, used to play an annual two day cricket match, with a night of revelry in Brighton between). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10596,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10594\/revisions\/10596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}