<\/p>\n\n\n\n
27 \u00a0 DECEMBER \u00a0 2025 \u00a0 - \u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ARSENAL \u00a0 2 \u00a0 BRIGHTON \u00a0 & \u00a0 HOVE \u00a0 ALBION \u00a0 1 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Albion were on their travels again, this time to North London for a Premier League encounter\u00a0 with top of the table Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. \u00a0The match was broadcast over the airwaves\u00a0on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio Sussex Sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In their previous Premier League game the Albion had drawn 0-0 at home to Sunderland on the 20 December and for their visit to the Emirates made three changes to their starting line-up from the Sunderland game, with Jan Paul Van Hecke, Lewis Dunk and Diego Gomez coming in for Mats Wieffer, Olivier Boscagli and Yankuba Minteh, the latter three dropping down to the substitutes bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last time out in the Premier high-flying Arsenal had won 1-0 at Everton on the 20 December and for Albion's visit Manager Mikel Arteta made two changes to his starting line-up from the Everton game, with Myles Lewis-Skelly and Mikel Merino replacing Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori. The previous midweek had seen the Arsenal defeating Crystal Palace on the 23 December in the Quarter-Final of the Carabao Cup at the Emirates by virtue of a 8-7 penalty shoot-out win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was Albion's second visit to the Emirates this season, having lost 0-2 in the Fourth Round\u00a0of the Carabao Cup on the 29 October by virtue of goals from Ethan Nwaneri (57m) and Bukayo Saka (76m). \u00a0In their meetings in the Premier League last season the teams drew twice. \u00a0On the\u00a031 August 2024 it finished 1-1 at the Emirates with Kai Havertz (38m) netting for the Gunners\u00a0and Joao Pedro (58m) replying for the Seagulls. \u00a0There was a similiar 1-1 score-line at the Amex on the 4 January 2025, with Ethan Nwaneri (16m) scoring for Arsenal and Joao Pedro (61m, penalty) equalising for the Albion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was the home side who were fast out of the traps and on two minutes former Albion players Leandro Trossard and Viktor Gyokeres combined to set-up the first chance of the game when\u00a0Trossard's ball over the top sent Gyokeres clear but the Swedish striker's shot was straight at Albion keeper Bart Verbruggen. \u00a0Bukayo Saka then raced past Maxim De Cuyper but his shot from an angle was dealt with by Verbruggen. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was no surprise when Arsenal took the lead on 14 minutes when the lively Saka found his Captain Martin Odegaard on the edge of the box and\u00a0the Norwegian took a touch before unleashing a low left-foot shot past Verbruggen to put\u00a0Arsenal in front. \u00a0It was Odegaard's first goal of the season. \u00a00-1.<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gunners were in cruise control now with Odegaard and Saka pulling the strings and before the break Arsenal had conjured up no fewer than fifteen attempts at goal, including a superb flicked shot from Martin Zubimendi, which was well saved by Verbruggen. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Half-time 0-1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Seagulls made a double substitution at the start of the second-half, with Mats Wieffer and\u00a0 Yankuba Minteh replacing Maxim De Cuyper and Brajan Gruda. \u00a0Albion's first effort on goal came from Yasin Ayari but his weak effort was easily held by Arsenal keeper David Raya. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gunners\u00a0doubled their lead from a set-piece on 52 minutes when Declan Rice's inswinging corner was\u00a0headed into his own-goal by the unfortunate Georginio Rutter. \u00a00-2<\/strong>. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The home side continued to dominate and Verbruggen made fine saves to deny Gyokeres and then Saka. \u00a0To everyones\u00a0surprise Albion pulled a goal back on 64 minutes when Ayari's shot from distance rebounded back into play off the post and there was the alert Diego Gomez to sweep the ball past Raya. \u00a01-2<\/strong>. \u00a0 Match stats:<\/strong> VERDICT<\/strong> \u00a0- \u00a0For the first hour it was all Arsenal but after Albion scored they came into the game and but for David Raya's wonder save from Yankuba Minteh, the Seagulls might have come away from the Emirates with something. \u00a0Goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen's early saves kept Albion in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Albion line-up (3-4-2-1)<\/strong>:- \u00a0Bart VERBRUGGEN; \u00a0Diego COPPOLA (Tommy WATSON 87), Jan Paul VAN HECKE, Lewis DUNK (Capt); \u00a0Ferdi KADIOGLU, Yasin AYARI, Jack HINSHELWOOD (Danny WELBECK 75), Maxim DE CUYPER (Mats WIEFFER 46); \u00a0Brajan GRUDA (Yankuba MINTEH 46), Diego GOMEZ (Charalampos KOSTOULAS 87); \u00a0Georginio RUTTER. \u00a0 Arsenal line-up (4-3-3)<\/strong>:- \u00a0David RAYA; \u00a0Declan RICE, William SALIBA, Piero HINCAPIE, Myles LEWIS-SKELLY (Gabriel MAGALHAES 71); \u00a0Martin ODEGAARD (Capt), Martin ZUBIMENDI,\u00a0Mikel MERINO; \u00a0Bukayo SAKA, Viktor GYOKERES (Gabriel JESUS 71), Leandro TROSSARD (Gabriel MARTINELLI 82). \u00a0 Yellow Cards:<\/strong> \u00a0 Possession:<\/strong> \u00a0Albion \u00a0- \u00a047%. \u00a0Arsenal \u00a0- \u00a053%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BBC Sport Player of the Match: David Raya (Arsenal).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attendance: 60209.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jack Kaye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 30 December 2025. .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 27 \u00a0 DECEMBER \u00a0 2025 \u00a0 - \u00a0 ARSENAL \u00a0 2 \u00a0 BRIGHTON \u00a0 & \u00a0 HOVE \u00a0 ALBION \u00a0 1 \u00a0 The Albion were on their travels again, this time to North London for a Premier League encounter\u00a0 with top of the table Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. \u00a0The match was broadcast over the […]<\/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-5465","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\/5465","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=5465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5466,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5465\/revisions\/5466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The goal invigorated the Seagulls and on his 150th Premier League appearance keeper Raya produced a magnificent save when tipping Minteh's piledriver of a shot over the bar. \u00a0A major turning point in the game. \u00a0There was still time for Saka to find the unmarked Gabriel Martinelli in front of goal but\u00a0the substitute fired over from close-in.
\u00a0Final-score 1-2.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Albion had 8 attempts at goal, with 3 on target and won 2 corners, free-kicks\u00a0conceded - 13. \u00a0
Arsenal had 24 attempts at goal, with 6 on target and won 7 corners, free-kicks conceded - 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subs not used: \u00a0Jason STEELE (G\/K), Olivier BOSCAGLI, Joel VELTMAN, James MILNER.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subs not used: \u00a0Kepa ARRIZABALAGA (G\/K), Cristian NORGAARD, Ethan NWANERI, Marli SALMON, Noni MADUEKE, Eberechi EZE.
Referee:<\/strong> \u00a0John Brooks (Leicestershire). \u00a0
Fourth Official:<\/strong> \u00a0Ruebyn Ricardo. \u00a0
VAR Official:<\/strong> \u00a0Paul Tierney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albion: \u00a03 \u00a0- \u00a0Bart Verbruggen, Diego Coppola, Lewis Dunk. \u00a0
Arsenal: \u00a02 \u00a0- \u00a0Piero Hincapie, Myles Lewis-Skelly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n