Arsenal defeated Brighton 2-0 at the Emirates to advance to the Carabao Cup quarterfinal on the strength of second half goals from Ethan Nwaneri and Bukayo Saka. A fine day at the office, if you ask me.
Rotated the side. Played some young players. No new injuries. Won the match.
The Gunners did not start the match well. The opening 15-20 minutes were far too open and Brighton had at least two fantastic chances to score. On both, Kepa Arrizabalaga did really well to be off his line quickly and affect the shots. Arsenal’s backup keeper had an excellent match. He made the early saves when the rotated, young side in front of him had yet to settle in and was a safe set of hands throughout the match. Don’t underestimate the buoying effect that calm assuredness has.
The start to the first half was an emphatic reminder of why Arsenal’s controlling style, positional discipline, and emphasis on solid defense is the best way to win matches, at least for this bunch. It easily could have been 2-0 to Brighton from the much-more-open-than-usual play. I’d suggest most of that openness can be chalked up to the rotation. A bunch of players who haven’t played much and have hardly played together aren’t going to look like a well-oiled machine.
Fortunately, Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie were solid from the opening whistle and got better as the game wore on. When one made a mistake, the other mopped it up. They also cleaned up for a couple Christian Norgaard giveaways. The Dane looked rusty, which is to be expected given he’s spent most of the season injured and has hardly played. Like everyone in an Arsenal shirt, he got better as the game wore on. They were helped by the “veteran” presence of Myles Lewis-Skelly on the left, who had a strong game. Ben White was fine, if unspectacular, on the other side. He’s clearly still working his way back into form.
Arsenal tightened things up as the first half wore on and started to dictate the match. Max Dowman was, perhaps unsurprisingly (which is a wild thing to say about a teenager who won’t turn 16 until December) a standout performer. But Arsenal weren’t getting Ebere Eze and Ethan Nwaneri involved in the play enough, in part because Brighton were trying really hard to deny them the ball. That attention created space for Dowman.
The Gunners looked even better to start the second half. They took the lead on a vintage Wenger-esque sweeping attacking move. Eze found Mikel Merino, whose brilliant backheel opened up the defense. MLS received on the run into the box between defenders and found Ethan Nwaneri just inside the 18. His curled shot either went off or just beyond the keeper’s fingertips and in at the far post. A lovely attacking move.
Arsenal doubled their lead just under 20 minutes later. Substitute Jurrien Timber bulldozed through the Brighton midfield, shrugging off two attempts to slow him down, and picked out the run of young debutant Andre Harriman-Annous. The 17-year-old couldn’t quite chip the keeper, but his shot forced a rebound that Bukayo Saka deposited into the empty net. Timber gets the lion’s share of the credit for the goal, but it doesn’t happen without AHA’s movement. The youngster played a mistake-free match. He didn’t really have any “wow” moments but he worked hard and did the rights things — one defensive effort where he hustled back in the middle third to poke his foot in and create a turnover sticks out as a bright spot.
And that was that. Gabriel replaced Hincapie to close things down and not over-exert the Ecuadorian. The Brazilian CB immediately made a menace of himself on set pieces. For all the (stupid) discussion about Arsenal’s set piece prowess, so much of the success comes from Gabriel (and Mikel Merino) just being really, really good on them and both Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka’s expert delivery. There’s nothing nefarious or tricky about it. They are simply supremely talented from the dead ball.
That match went exactly as you’d want a cup match to go. Two Hale Enders (Dowman and Harriman-Annous) made their first starts for the club. Two Hale End graduates (Nwaneri and Saka) scored. Myles Lewis-Skelly, also an academy graduate, starred. It just so happens that Arsenal’s academy graduates are also stars and stars-in-the-making. I observed early in the match that while the focus would understandably be on the young players, today’s match is probably more important for the Ben White, Mosquera, Hincapie, Norgaard, etc. types — the guys who haven’t played that much but will likely be called upon to play important minutes in big games at some point this season. That all went well. The got a chance to knock of the rust and get minutes in the legs.
Arsenal advancing means another match for the subs, younger players, and academy kids to get playing time. That’s quite valuable. It also keeps a shot at this particular (fourth-rate) trophy alive. That’s something too, I guess. It’s always nice to see the Gunners win.
