{"id":12963,"date":"2026-03-05T09:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T09:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12963"},"modified":"2026-03-06T16:37:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:37:52","slug":"one-nil-to-the-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12963","title":{"rendered":"One-Nil To The Arsenal!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As we kicked off at the Amex Stadium in Brighton there was only one change from Bath\u2019s XI as predicted in the preview. That change was Christhian Mosquera starting in place of William Saliba who had turned over an ankle against Chelsea and was too sore to start. In the lineup for the 300th time in his career though was Bukayo Saka, who was captain in honour of that achievement. Still no Martin \u00d8degaard in the squad though and his continuing fitness issues must be a real concern. Max Dowman returned on the bench where he was joined by Kai Havertz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unbelievably, after last seasons encounter at the Emirates and the nonsense that went on there with Declan Rice, Kris Kavanagh was given the whistle. He had been briefed by Fabian Hurzeler via the press that Arsenal would try to waste too much time at throw ins and corners, and that rule changes, no less, were required to bring them under control. There is something intensely annoying about Hurzeler – take your pick from arrogance, hypocrisy, constant carping and cheap transparent attempts at mind games for which he doesn\u2019t possess the requisite subtlety. However \u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n


First Half<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A hugely important game very nearly started disastrously when David Raya, after just 2 minutes, misplaced an unnecessarily risky pass to Declan Rice straight to a Brighton attacker. The latter\u2019s attempted lob easily cleared Raya but fortunately Gabriel back pedalled rapidly to clear with a back header. Raya is a brilliant keeper and has saved us many times. He has done a few strange things lately though – maybe the pressure is getting to him as well. I\u2019m sure he is playing to instructions but sometimes just clearing the ball isn\u2019t the worst idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 5 minutes Saka easily beat his full back and crossed into the six yard box where, er, nobody was waiting for a tap in. Just 3 minutes later he beat his man again, cutting inside, and fired a low drive at goal which went in off the keeper\u2019s foot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brighton 0 – 1 Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the half, and the match, was played in an atmosphere of attrition, stoked up by the Brighton manager who spent most of it in the fourth official\u2019s ear complaining about everything Arsenal did. Mosquera was booked for bringing down Georginio Rutter although Kavanagh kept his cards in his pocket when Gomez felled Martinelli in almost identical fashion. Hurzeler even moaned to the referee that Gabriel was limping after he had his foot trodden on but our centre back pointed out that it Hurzelot!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A period of Brighton pressure petered out after Beleba tried to land a shot from 25 yards on the pier. Kavanagh was again proving himself to be a truly awful referee. He gave Brighton free kicks for their players falling over Gyokeres, laying down in the area in front of Saka and injuring Zubimendi, who was then booed furiously for coming back onto the pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly before half time, I found myself hoping for changes as Gy\u00f6keres, Eze and even Martinelli had failed to make any impression on the game. It\u2019s odd how Gy\u00f6keres and Eze played so well against Tottenham but have since almost disappeared again. You can\u2019t play against any team in this league without full commitment from every single player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Arsenal left the field at half time to such a barrage of booing you would have thought Adolf Hitler, Attila the Hun and Fred West had all run on the pitch together. I get that home fans want to make life uncomfortable for the opposition and help their team to win but these reactions were plain stupid. I didn\u2019t hear those fans singing or cheering their own team at all. It was purely about booing and jeering the Arsenal from start to finish, the complete opposite of the travelling Gooners who were brilliant as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half Time: Brighton 0 – 0 Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurzeler started the second half in the official\u2019s ear as they emerged from the tunnel. Arsenal started the second half without any changes. Brighton subbed on Minteh to the left wing. It was a change that made them more dangerous. Christhian Mosquera had to be substituted to avoid the risk of a second yellow. He was struggling to contain Minteh and one challenge where he went to ground could have resulted in a second yellow and a penalty had the forward not stayed on his feet. Up to then Mosquera had done well as usual. He has been a terrific buy. Calafiori replaced him with Hinkapi\u00e9 switching to right centre back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before the hour mark, Gy\u00f6keres and Martinelli were replaced by Havertz and Trossard. The changes did make us more lively and we wrestled some control back from Brighton. By the end it was all hands on deck again and a case of anywhere will do. The players are clearly and unsurprisingly extremely tired and even Zubimendi had to be replaced by Christian N\u00f8rgaard ten minutes before the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brighton made, I think, five substitutions in total, which fortunately made them less threatening in the end. Seven minutes of added time came and went and even Kavanagh felt compelled to produce a couple of cards for Brighton\u2019s increasingly crude attempts to grab an equaliser. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Time: Brighton 0 – 1 Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the final whistle the Brighton fans booed. Again! The Arsenal fans danced, sang, jumped up and down, and hugged each other as the news filtered through that Man City had only drawn at home to Nottingham Forest. That leaves us 7 points and 5 goals better off than them with 8 games to go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fabian Hurzeler said in his post match interview that Brighton should have had a penalty, that referees need to sort out the \u201cother stuff\u201d, that Arsenal should have had a few more yellow cards for time wasting, that he didn\u2019t want to use \u201ctoo many words\u201d and that as a manager he would never play football like Arsenal do, or be the kind of manager who tries to win in that way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel Arteta unsurprisingly played all questions with a straight bat and said that the desire of his players to win is incredible and we just keep doing what we have to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, these games are not fun to watch. The players are out on their feet. Hopefully they can rest for a week now as it\u2019s FA Cup weekend coming up.
Apparently a small pile of melted polyester was found on the touch line at the end of the evening where Hurzeler had spontaneously combusted in his own coat. Not even Arsene Wenger pulled that one off. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we kicked off at the Amex Stadium in Brighton there was only one change from Bath\u2019s XI as predicted in the preview. That change was Christhian Mosquera starting in place of William Saliba who had turned over an ankle against Chelsea and was too sore to start. In the lineup for the 300th time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12963"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12963"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12967,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12963\/revisions\/12967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}