After the disappointment of the draw at Wolves, Arsenal have put together a mini run that has injected new purpose and belief into this title chase with morale boosting London derby wins over T*ttenham and Chelsea – now’s the time to capitalise on that momentum and really push on. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that if Arsenal don’t win tonight, all of that stress against Chelsea was for nothing, but it will certainly count for less.
Brighton are a really tricky team and have really big results in them, so without a doubt, this is going to be another real test. To get 9 points from these three games would feel like a massive step towards the title in my eyes, albeit with plenty of work to do. I put this fixture in the same box as the Bournemouth and Brentford sort of games, where you really have to be at your best to claim all three points, which makes it all the more important, as the performance needs to improve from Sunday.
Areas of encouragement
The biggest area of encouragement must be that this team seems to have developed a way to just get over the line. It might not always be pretty and it’s usually ridiculously stressful, but by and large, they get the job done. A few more like that and we’ll be in great shape.
Areas of concern
The clean sheets seem to have disappeared of late, even against a really poor T*ttenham team we didn’t manage to keep them out. That makes what is essentially a margins game at the moment, with very few comfortable wins in the past few weeks (or months?), even more difficult as we know we need to score twice.
What I’d love to see
Energy. We looked really leggy against Chelsea in those latter stages and it nearly cost us. I understand that some players have played an awful lot of football this season, but we need to find a way to match Brighton’s running. There’s still so much football left to play, we can’t grind out every result so Mikel Arteta has to find a few to put a bit of zip back into this team.
What I’d hate to see
A slow start to this game would give Brighton all the encouragement in the world and get the home fans up – that cannot happen. If we’re going to get over the line in this title race, we need to start imposing ourselves on games from the first whistle and setting the tone.
Lineup and Team News
Despite the tiredness on show at the end of the Chelsea game, I don’t think Arteta will make massive changes here. No Ben White again so Jurrien Timber has to play and with the FA Cup game at the weekend providing an opportunity to rotate, I don’t think any of his other key defenders will sit this one out either, so it will be the same back 5 that started against Chelsea.
In midfield, Declan Rice is apparently okay so he’s another that will have to play, along with Martin Zubimendi as we lack the options required to rotate them, with Christian Norgaard yet to start a really key game for us. That leaves the question of who will start in the number 10 position and I think he might throw in Kai Havertz from the start on this one and try to get this attack going again.
Bukayo Saka and Viktor Gyokeres should retain their places and then the final question remains as to who will start on the left. Normally I think Arteta would play Gabriel Martinelli, to try and exploit any space in behind. However, I think he will lean towards the Trossard v Brighton narrative that seems to bring a real determination out of the Belgian and give him another chance here. Martin Odegaard should be fit enough for the bench, so he’ll hopefully be an option in the second half, along with Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Martinelli.
Predicted lineup:
Raya
Timber
Saliba
Gabriel
Hincapie
Zubimendi
Rice
Havertz
Saka
Gyokeres
Trossard
Substitutes:
Arrizabalaga
Mosquera
Calafiori
Lewis-Skelly
Norgaard
Odegaard
Eze
Martinelli
Jesus
PREDICTION Another huge, huge game. Brighton are more attacking than most in the Premier League so I think there will be goals in this one – I’m going for 3-1 to The A