If the last few games had been a bit dull for the neutral, this one was anything but, as a much changed Arsenal team (understandably) failed to control the game in the same way as they usually do, which lead to an end-to-end contest. Arsenal rode their luck at times during this one and were fortunate to go into the break on level terms. In the second half though, Arsenal really pushed on and were clinical when their chances game, which was ultimately was set the two sides apart as Arsenal progressed to the quarter-finals to set up another home tie, with Crystal Palace next up in the middle of December.
The line-up
We all expected rotation, but I’m not sure if anyone expected quite this much! Mikel Arteta made 10 changes from the game at home to Crystal Palace, with only Eberechi Eze keeping his place in the side. Even that was largely down to the fact that Gabriel Martinelli picked up an injury at the weekend, otherwise it would have been a completely new team.
The defence was always likely to be heavily rotated with players like Ben White and Piero Hincapie desperate for minutes. Cristhian Mosquera and Myles Lewis-Skelly have also been solid when called upon this season so were thrust into action once again, ahead of Kepa Arrizabalaga who deputised for David Raya again. The midfield was also completely changed with Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi only named on the bench so Christian Norgaard started his first game for Arsenal alongside Mikel Merino and Ethan Nwaneri.
Up top is where things got really interesting as Max Dowman broke another set off records as he took up his place on the right wing to become the youngest player ever to start for Arsenal, edging out academy goalkeeper Jack Porter from last season. Eze lined up on the left hand side of attack with the real surprise inclusion of the night being Andre Harriman-Annous who was chosen to lead the line in his first appearance, and first start, for Arsenal in a massive show of faith from Arteta.
In contrast to a few other teams in this competition, Mikel Arteta sensibly loaded the bench with first team regulars, just in case things didn’t go as planned.
First half
Let’s face it, things did not start well. Arsenal started a game like 11 players who had never played together before. Largely due to the fact that these 11 players had never played together before, yet they managed to stay in the game and improved massively as the came went on.
Kepa made a fine save from a one on one from Rutter, who probably should have done better, and there were further chances from Baleba, Diego Gomez, Van Hecke and particularly from Tzimas, that either went just wide or were comfortably saved by Kepa. The chance from Tzimas was the highlight though as Arsenal were completely caught out from their own corner and allowed Brighton to race away and play in Tzimas for another 1v1 chance that he pushed tamely wide of the near post.
At the other end, Merino blasted wide when found by a nice disguised pass from Nwaneri and Nwaneri himself also had a few sighters, but in truth the half belonged to Brighton and I for one was extremely grateful to go in to the interval with the score goalless.
Second half
Thankfully Arsenal started the second half a lot better than they started the first. It wasn’t the usual Arsenal dominance that we’re used to seeing, but it was a much more even game and more half chances than the clear openings that Brighton enjoyed in the opening ten minutes of the game. Max Dowman had a lovely jinking run along the Brighton byline before trying to buy a penalty, which the referee correctly waived away. In truth, the youngster was probably lucky not to receive a yellow card as the contact was initiated by Dowman, before he took his tumble. On this occasion, the referee kept his cards in his pocket however, the flying winger is going to have to remove this element from his game and quickly, otherwise he’s going to start drawing a lot of unwanted attention to both himself and the club.
Brighton remained an attacking threat and Max De Cuyper brought another decent save from Kepa, albeit from further out that many of the Brighton ones in the first half, with Arsenal not having it all their own way.
The next chance fell to Arsenal as Eberechi Eze, who looked dangerous throughout, cut the ball back to Ethan Nwaneri, just inside the box and the teenager took a shot from just inside the Brighton box, which Steele smothered well. Nwaneri looked keen to hit the shot first time, but the pass from Eze wasn’t quite accurate enough for him to do so and in the end it was a fairly tame effort from Nwaneri.
However, this chance was just a dress rehearsal of what was to follow as a lovely passing move down that same side would bring about the opening goal of the game for Arsenal. Piero Hincapie fizzed a lovely ball out to the left which Eze brought under his spell instantly before sidestepping a defender and slipping the ball to Merino. The Spaniard took one touch and then sent Myles Lewis-Skelly in beautifully with a perfectly waited back heel. It was a thing of beauty and what was to follow wasn’t too bad either. Lewis-Skelly got his head up and, in contrast to Eze a few minutes earlier, played a first time ball to Nwaneri, who slotted a first time left footed shot across the keeper into the far right corner of the net. Steele got a hand to it, but couldn’t keep it out as the two great friends linked up again to give Arsenal the lead.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say Arsenal deserved lead yet they had produced one moment of real quality as they carved Brighton open and were clinical after doing so and isn’t that what football is all about?
Arsenal ran the changes on 70 minutes with Jurrien Timber, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel replacing White, Dowman and Hincapie. Not a bad few players to bring on when you’re winning! All three that were withdrawn had played their part in getting Arsenal the lead and now it was down to the ‘first team’ players to see it out.
They didn’t just see it out as Timber picked up the ball in his usual right back position and just decided he was going to run pretty much the full length of the pitch. He’s not someone I would describe as pacy, but when he gets going with those bursts of power and acceleration, he’s a tough man to stop, as Brighton found out! Not happy with just making up ground, Timber then slipped in a beautiful pass to Andre Harriman-Annous and for a few seconds, it felt like this was his moment in the spotlight. In truth, the youngster, who had ran his socks off all night, looked absolutely dead on his feet and could only prod a side foot finish towards the Brighton goal, when the dink into the far corner really looked on. The shot from Harriman-Annous was not enough to beat Steele, as he pushed his effort away. Fortunately for Arsenal though, Bukayo Saka was following in and took a touch before firing into a pretty much unguarded net to double Arsenal’s lead and send Arsenal into the quarter finals.
Shortly after the goal, Harriman-Annous was withdrawn, along with Eze, to be greeted by a massive hug from Mikel Arteta, who had seen his faith repaid in spades by the young man, as he undoubtedly played his part in winning the game for the Gunners.
The rest of the game passed largely without incident, although Leandro Trossard struck the post late on against his former side, with Arsenal overcoming a strong Brighton side to march on into the next round.
Three key takeaways
Hale End is not done
With the academy churning out wonderkids by the bucket load at the moment, you might have thought that there might be a lean spell coming where we didn’t see anyone emerge from Hale End for a while…cue Andre Harriman-Annous! By no means unheard of to most Arsenal fans, as he appeared on the pre-season tour of Asia however, it was quite a shock to see him lead the line from the start. The young striker didn’t disappoint as he worked his socks off, linked the play well at times, was really positive on the ball and most importantly didn’t look out of place at all. Keep them coming Hale End!
This game was very much a flashback to the Arsene Wenger Carling Cup era
I couldn’t put my finger on it until I heard someone mention that Wenger would have been proud of the amount of changes we made in this game and that was absolutely it. There was something familiar about watching a League Cup team that was completely different from the one we saw at the weekend. To then top it off with the shock of throwing in a player, that would be unknown to many, to lead the line on his debut and a 15 year old winger and you’ve got yourself an Arsene Wenger team!
October has been very kind to us
Arsenal finished October with 6 wins from 6 and not a single goal conceded…what I would give for similar numbers from November! Arsenal rode their luck tonight, but it has still been a monumentally good month for us and now it’s time to push on and make sure November starts well with three more wins before the next international break.