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[Ratings & Goals] Arsenal 1-2 Brighton: Lacazette woeful as Gunners bottle top 4

By on April 9, 2022

Mikel Arteta Arsenal

Arsenal produced a pathetic performance to slump to a 2-1 defeat to Brighton at the Emirates Stadium this afternoon.

It was a slow start, as Mikel Arteta certainly didn’t get the response he’d have wanted following Monday’s thrashing by Palace. Brighton looked confident and opened the scoring in the 25th minute when they broke down the left – exposing Granit Xhaka who was too high up the pitch – and Leandro Trossard was free to fire home the cross.

Arsenal should have been level at the break when Gabriel Martinelli headed home from close range following a corner. However, after 4 minutes checking the goal, VAR decided to rule it out even though there was no conclusive angle to show Martinelli was offside. The Brighton goalkeeper was blocking the view to see whether the defender was playing Martinelli on/off, but the VAR ruled it out anyway.

It would have been an undeserved goal as Arsenal were woeful and Brighton took full advantage by doubling their lead midway through the second half. Enock Mwepu fired home from the edge of the box following a superb move to make it 2-0.

Arsenal pulled one back in the 90th minute when Martin Odegaard’s long-range strike deflected past Sanchez but we couldn’t find an equaliser so fell to a second painful defeat inside a week.

Here are my ratings:

Ramsdale  5/10 | Got nowhere near either of the goals. Distribution was decent enough.

Soares  5/10 | Got done for the second Brighton goal and it was his man [Trossard] who opened the scoring. Offered little going forward too.

White  5/10 | Disappointing performance. Couldn’t do anything with the ball to build attacks from deep and was part of the defence that was opened up twice by Brighton.

Gabriel  6/10 | Should have had an assist for the Martinelli goal and almost scored himself. Better than Monday’s display but still not back to his best.

Xhaka  5/10 | Shouldn’t have started at left-back and we badly missed him in midfield. Big mistake by Arteta. Caught out of position too high up in the build-up to the opening goal. Didn’t have the pace to get back and prevent the cross.

Lokonga  5/10 | Huge downgrade on Partey and it showed. His passing was sloppy and struggled to get hold of the midfield. Easily lost out the battle to Bissouma and Mwepu.

Smith Rowe  5/10 | Very poor at times. Couldn’t influence the game and was eventually hauled off.

Odegaard  6/10 | Scored a deflected strike from 30 yards after hitting the bar with a free kick seconds earlier. But was largely frustrated.

Saka  5/10 | Worked hard but wasn’t his day. Was on the end of some strong tackles again and didn’t have his shooting boots on either.

Martinelli  6/10 | Should have made it 1-1 with his header that was inexplicably ruled out. Arsenal’s liveliest attacker, but Arteta still took him off for some reason.

Lacazette  4/10 | Absolutely anonymous. Touched the ball about 5 times and offered zero goal threat. We might as well give Eddie Nketiah a run out up front as Laca is offering nothing right now.

Subs:

Nketiah  6/10 | Made an impact. Saw a diving header well saved in the last minute and hit the crossbar with another shot.

Pepe  5/10 | Did very little.

Here are the highlights and goals:

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