Brighton and Hove Albion away preview

PLEASE BRIGHTON UP OUR DAY

FOLLOWING THE DREADFUL defeat up at Manchester City on Wednesday evening, Arsenal return to action on Saturday with a trip to the seaside.

Unfortunately, not for a nice relaxing summer’s day at the beach with the family but for another tough Premier League match against relegation threatened Brighton and Hove Albion.

It was not so long ago when a match against such opposition would not have caused us too many sleepless nights and we would be confident of going there and getting a good win.

But those days are long gone.

In fact, Brighton have proved to be a bit of a bogey team for us in recent years. 

We have not beaten them in our last four meetings, since a 2-0 win at the Emirates in October 2017, and we have not won away at Brighton in the league since a 1-0 success at the old Goldstone Ground way back in April 1981.

Remember, the Seagulls won 2-1 at the Emirates earlier this season in what was Freddie Ljungberg’s first home game in charge, their first ever win away at Arsenal in nine previous attempts. 

That was in fact the second win in a row at the Emirates for Brighton manager Graham Potter, following Ostersunds' 2-1 victory in the Europa League in March 2018.

So, all in all the omens are not looking good.

Mikel Arteta is coming under pressure for the first time since taking over in December. Both his team selection and tactics at City left a lot of question marks in what turned out to be a very meek surrender of the team’s eight-match unbeaten league run in 2020.

Meanwhile the injuries in that game have now left Arteta with selection problems in both defence and midfield. 

Pablo Mari is out for the season following the ankle injury sustained at the Etihad, and his replacement on the night, David Luiz, is suspended.

With Callum Chambers and Papa Sokratis both injured, and Rob Holding not having played any minutes in the Premier League in 2020, we really are down to the bare bones.

That leaves Shkrodran Mustafi as our only fit centre half so we could expect to see either a full back, such as Kieran Tierney or Sead Kolasinac, fill in, or maybe a kid from the academy, such as Zech Medley. Either way it is hardly idea preparation for such an important game.

Midfield is also a problem area with Granit Xhaka’s injury on Wednesday alongside Lucas Torriera, who is still not fit after his own injury problems. 

Again, this leaves us short, especially with uncertainty over the availability of Mesut Ozil, surprisingly left out of the squad at City for ‘tactical’ reasons.

The absence of Xhaka might give an opportunity for Ainsley Maitland-Niles to play in his preferred central midfield position and should allow Dani Ceballos another chance before his loan deal expires.

With all this in mind here is my predicted line up –

Leno – Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Tierney – Ceballos, Maitland-Niles, Willock – Nelson, Aubameyang, Saka

That would leave the likes of Alex Lacazette, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah, and Nicolas Pepe to come off the bench later in the game if needed in a squad far too top heavy at the front end of the pitch but servery lacking in quality further back.

I do not see any change to the team shape, with Ceballos possibly playing in the No. 10 role behind Maitland-Niles and Matteo Guendouzi. 

Reiss Nelson is far more suited to playing on the right rather than the left-footers Pepe or Bukayo Saka, and I would risk Holding in defence as he is the only other natural centre half we have with first team experience. This will of course depend on his fitness.

I think this shows the reason why we currently sit ninth in the table. The lack of strength in depth in defence and midfield and the lack of leadership on the pitch really is quite shocking for a club of our stature and shows how far we have fallen even since the latter years of Arsene Wenger.

Gone are the goals from midfield, always a feature of our great teams, and in fact if Aubameyang is not scoring no one is. This explains our away record this season with only two wins and far too many draws. 

In fact, we have scored just 14 goals away from home in 14 matches and Aubameyang has got nine of them.

Arteta has not yet won away from home in the Premier League, the City defeat followed five consecutive draws, and it hard to see where the next away win is coming from.

The travel plans for the City game also seemed a little rushed, with the players allegedly still on the plane three hours before kick-off. 

Of course, usually the team would travel the day before and spend the night in a hotel, but things are quite different now. However surely, they need to arrive a lot earlier for future away matches. 

Lets hope the minibus on Saturday sets off in plenty of time.

With all this in mind I am going to be cautious in my predication. Brighton are in desperate need of the points and Potter will be all too aware of our weaknesses. 

Our defence worries me greatly as does the lack of protection in front of it. Brighton are very direct and will look at getting the ball forward quickly and then look to win the knock downs.

The only slight advantage we have is that we have experienced playing in a empty stadium and Brighton will miss their usual passionate home support.

Weighing it all up I’ll be amazed if we keep a clean sheet so I’ll go for an optimistic 2-2 draw, and that is being very optimistic. I would certainly not be surprised to see another defeat.

If you fancy a chuckle on Saturday then look out for our live watch along of this Brighton match on the Mr Arsenal Podcast on YouTube from 2.45pm on Saturday afternoon where I'll be joined by host Ryan and Kenny Ken.