Arsenal doing 'a Chelsea' as Arteta snubbed Gyökeres AGAIN despite needing goals in 3-0 reversal at the Amex
By Alessandro Schiavone at the Amex Stadium, Brighton & Hove Albion
Goals: Groß (31'), Kostoulas 45', Andres 57'
At 0-0 Brighton fans sang: “Same old Arsenal, always cheating.” By the end of the game it turned to: “Champions of England, you’re having a laugh!”
But “Are you Coventry City in disguise?” would have been more appropriate. Or Chelsea, perhaps, as both London giants were played off the park by the same scoreline in less than 24 hours.
Or maybe such derisory comparisons would be unfair on the east Midlanders and the Blues. To Frank Lampard’s defence, his side at least showed endeavour and desire in their 4-0 trashing by Newcastle. And Chelsea did at least have an opening half-hour in which they tried to take the lead at the Gtech Community Stadium yesterday. Both showed hunger. Yet there was none of that here at the Amex today, as the Seagulls hit Arsenal for three without reply with the Gunners going on to suffer their most ignominious league defeat in 42 months. Their opponents back then? You name them! Brighton, of course. Three nil as well, of course.
Today's encounter will go down in Brighton folklore. Of course, 4-0 would have made it even more historic and controversial... if only Georginio Rutter had buried his late effort. On top from start to finish, Pascal Hurzeler’s men could have been four or five goals up in the first period alone.
In fact, trailing by only two goals flattered Arsenal big time. Sluggish, panicky and disjointed. Uninspired in midfield, jittery in defence and non-existent in attack only for a quick counter-attack which saw Saka scuff his effort into Verbruggen's palms on the turn. Nowhere near the required level.
Their only clear-cut chance came in the 77th minute, when Kai Havertz was denied by Bart Verbruggen one-on-one.
Arsenal were absolutely rubbish in attack. And despite that, Gyökeres didn't see the pitch until the 73rd minute when the damage had already been done.
After peppering the hosts’ goal and camping outside their box like Dutchmen do around the world, veteran Pascal Gross drove his effort home off the post to send the frustrated fans into ecstasy on 31 minutes.
Frustrated because they had not reaped the rewards of their dominance against the Champions League runners-up, of course.
So would Brighton & Hove Albion’s opener be a wake-up call for the haphazard and rudderless north Londoners? Far from it as they got worse!
Minutes after Ayari hit the side-netting following a quick combination with Kadioglu, Greek star Kostoulas hammered one home from afar after collecting the ball and quickly turning around.
Andres completed the rout after nodding home Gross’ corner at the far post before the hour-mark.
It just wasn’t Arsenal’s day. Or maybe we have to give the southerners more credit.
And in Hurzeler, they probably have a future Bayern Munich manager in their dugout.
Given the famous comings and goings of players and managers, Brighton should enjoy the big German while they can. As for Arsenal, this comes at the worst possible time, just before the international break, meaning they can’t rectify and get it out of their system for at least three weeks.
Equally, Arteta now has to decide what he wants to do with Gyokeres and whether the Swede still has a future beyond the Carabao Cup, FA Cup, a potential eighth group-stage dead rubber in the Champions League and Premier League introductions with the game already decided one way or another. Bringing on a striker with less than 20 minutes to go despite needing goals is a public humiliation.
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