Arsenal travel to the South Coast to take on Brighton as the Premier League draws ever-closer to MD38. The Gunners hold a 5-point lead over Manchester City, who have a game in hand. The Seagulls sit 12th in the table. All the focus is on Arsenal — will they find a way to keep winning games, hold off City, and do what they haven’t been able to do in more than two decades?
Brighton have steadied themselves somewhat just in time to host Arsenal. They snapped a 6-match winless streak by downing Brentford
two weeks ago and then beating (a bit unconvincingly) Nottingham Forest at the weekend. But really, they’ve struggled since the start of December, sliding down the table from 5th to 12th with a 3-6-6 record in the league. If you were to take only that segment (Dec. through today), they’d be 15th. So we can look forward to them playing like prime Barcelona, right?
The talk in the run-up has been exhausting. We’ve done another round of set piece discourse in the media. Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler, a noted complainer, has been flapping his gums about the time Arsenal spend setting up for corners, particularly when they’re in the lead. It’d be awkward and embarrassing for him to learn that his side, Brighton, have the 4th-lowest ball-in-play time per match of any club in the Premier League. Arsenal, on the other hand, have the sixth-most. We shouldn’t let facts get in the way of a headline-grabbing narrative, right?
My concern is that today’s referee Chris Kavanagh will, consciously or unconsciously, react to the Seagulls’ manager’s public complaints. The home crowd will certainly be quick to start jeering Arsenal taking any time on a restart, which might further influence his decisions. You can draw a clear connection between Rodri and Pep Guardiola complaining about the refereeing in their match against Tottenham and a spate of favorable decisions over the next several weeks.
There’s not really much Arsenal can do about that, though. They just have to play their game and adjust to whatever comes their way. I think they’ve learned quite well, actually. You can see a marked, positive difference in how the Arsenal players have reacted to calls and interacted with the referee this season compared to previous ones. They don’t seem to let it phase them anymore.
Arsenal will be without Martin Ødegaard, who is still dealing with the knee issue picked up against Brentford. Mikel Merino is likely out for the season. Both Kai Havertz and Declan Rice traveled with the squad after questions about minor knocks. Max Dowman is back with the squad after his lengthy layoff with an ankle injury.
UPDATE: William Saliba is not in the matchday squad with an issue picked up against Chelsea, according to Arsenal.com.
Stefanos Tzimas and Adam Webster are both out long-term for Brighton with knee ligament injuries. Yasin Ayari, who has missed time with a shoulder injury, makes the bench. Fabian Hurzeler said both Danny Welbeck and James Milner were due rotation out of the starting lineup.
Arsenal – Raya, Timber, Mosquera, Gabriel, Hincapie, Zubimendi, Rice, Eze, Martinelli, Saka, Gyokeres
Brighton – Verbruggen, Wieffer, Van Hecke, Boscagli, Kadioglu, Gross, Baleba, Hinshelwood, Gomez, Rutter, Mitoma
WHO: Arsenal at Brighton & Hove Albion
WHERE: The Amex Stadium, Brighton
WHEN: Wednesday, March 4th, 11:30 am PT | 2:30 pm ET | 7:30 pm GMT
HOW TO WATCH: Streaming on Peacock
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