17 DECEMBER 2023 - <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ARSENAL 2 <\/strong> BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n PREMIER LEAGUE<\/strong> - <\/p>\n\n\n\n at the EMIRATES STADIUM, LONDON N5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back on the road, the Albion travelled to North London for a Premier League encounter with top of the table Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, the match being covered by BBC Radiio 5 Live and BBC Radio Sussex Sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In their previous outing the Albion had enjoyed a memorable 1-0 win over Marseille at the Amex on the 14 December, which saw them finish top of their Group in the Europa League. For the visit to the Emirates, Head Coach Roberto De Zerbi made five changes to his starting line-up from the Marseille game, with Bart Verbruggen, Joel Veltman, James Milner, Adam Lallana and Evan Ferguson replacing Jason Steele, Jack Hinshelwood, Igor Julio, Facundo Buonanotte and Joao Pedro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last time out, the Arsenal had drawn 1-1 at PSV Eindhoven on the 12 December in the Champions League and they had finished top of their Group in that competition. For Albion's visit to the Emirates, Manager Mikel Arteta made eight changes to his starting line-up from the PSV Eindhoven game, with David Raya, Ben White, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli coming in for Aaron Ramsdale, Cedric Soares, Jakub Kiwior, Mohamed Elneny, Jorginho, Reiss Nelson and Leandro Trossard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n White and Trossard were signed by Arsenal from the Albion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The teams met three times last season. On the 9 November 2022, in the Third Round of the Carabao Cup, the Albion pulled-off a surprise 3-1 win, with their goals coming from Danny Welbeck (27m, penalty), Kaoru Mitoma (58m) and Tariq Lamptey (71m), after Eddie Nketiah (20m) had opened the scoring for the Gunners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Premier, at the Amex on the 31 December 2022, the Arsenal ran out 4-2 winners, In the reverse fixture at the Emirates Stadium on the 14 May 2023, the Albion won 3-0, <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was all Arsenal from the off and first Gabriel Jesus and then Bukayo Saka had goal-bound shots saved by Albion goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen. Next it was the turn of Gunners Captain Martin Odegaard whose curled left-foot shot from the edge of the area missed the target by inches. The Seagulls were unfortunate to lose the services of Joel Veltman, due to a knee injury on 27 minutes, with Jack Hinshelwood substituting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was still Arsenal in the ascendancy as Gabriel Martinelli fired a good chance over the bar, after being set-up by Odegaard and Saka. Then Jan Paul Van Hecke produced some good defensive play to block a goal-bound shot from Kai Havertz. Lewis Dunk then got his head in the way of a fierce shot from Odegaard.The first-half had been bossed by Arsenal and the Seagulls had defended well to remain in the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Half-time 0-0.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal Arsenal had threatened to score came on 53 minutes when Martinelli's corner took a deflection off the head of Van Hecke to the far post to the lurking unmarked Jesus, who had the easy task of heading the ball home from close-in. 0-1<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In an isolated raid Hinshelwood saw his header easily gathered by Arsenal keeper David Raya whilst at the other end Dunk made an excellent goal-line clearance to keep out Ben White's header from a corner. The Gunners continued on the offensive and Verbruggen made an excellent save to divert Odegaard's fierce shot and Havertz headed over from close-range from Martinelli's centre. Pascal Gross then failed to convert a cross from Kaoru Mitoma, when he should have done better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gunner's clinched the three points on 87 minutes when Martinelli's pass found the on-rushing Havertz, who coolly slipped the ball past Verbruggen for Arsenal's second. 0-2<\/strong>. The win sent Arsenal back to top-spot in the Premier League. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Final-score 0-2.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Match stats: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Albion had 6 attempts at goal, with 1 on target and won 1 corner, free-kicks conceded - 9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Arsenal had 26 attempts at goal, with 9 on target and won 10 corners, free-kicks conceded - 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n VERDICT -<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the day, Arsenal were the better team and deserved to win. Lewis Dunk and Jan Paul Van Hecke were outstanding at the heart of the Seagulls defence. The team looked a bit weary, which is not surprising considering their exertions against Marseille the previous Thursday (14\/12). Now for Palace on Thursday (21\/12) in front of the Sky Sports cameras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Albion line-up (4-2-3-1):- Bart Verbruggen; Joel Veltman (Jack Hinshelwood 27), Jan Paul Van Hecke, Lewis Dunk (Capt), James Milner (Igor Julio 60); Pascal Gross, Billy Gilmour; Simon Adringa (Danny Welbeck 79), Adam Lallana (Facundo Buonanotte 60), Kaoru Mitoma; Evan Ferguson (Joao Pedro 60). Arsenal line-up (4-3-3):- David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Oleksandr Zinchenko (Jakub Kiwior 90+3); Martin Odegaard (Capt), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz (Emile Smith Rowe 89); Bukayo Saka (Reiss Nelson 89), Gabriel Jesus (Eddie Nketiah 81), Gabriel Martinellki (Leandro Trossard 82). Referee: Tim Robinson (West Sussex).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yellow Cards: Albion: 3 - Pascal Gross, Billy Gilmour, Kaoru Mitoma. Possession: Albion - 51%. Arsenal - 49%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BBC Sport Player of the Match: Declan Rice (Arsenal).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attendance: 60257 (including 2985 Albion fans).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LEAGUE LEADERS CONVINCING WIN 17 DECEMBER 2023 - ARSENAL 2 BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 0 PREMIER LEAGUE - at the EMIRATES STADIUM, LONDON N5. Back on the road, the Albion travelled to North London for a Premier League encounter with top of the table Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, the match being covered by BBC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jack-kayes-football-reports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2887"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2891,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887\/revisions\/2891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Subs not used: Jason Steele (G\/K), Mahmoud Dahoud, Jakub Moder, Carlos Baleba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subs not used: Aaron Ramsdale (G\/K), Cedric Soares, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Reuell Walters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arsenal: 2 - Ben White, Mikel Arteta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n