Arsenal’s difficulties when caught on a counter-attack are growing bigger and caused problems against Brighton too. Unai Emery used the best available starting XI but this couldn’t help to their defensive performance and they lost the lead after a series of counter-attacks. As I’ve mentioned before the lack of pressure that the players put on their opponents and the failure to hold onto the ball played a huge part in their defensive actions.
Brighton managed to get a point out of the game thanks to their consistency when it comes to turnovers. The players were focused enough to take advantage of every Arsenal’s mistake and it all paid off with their equalizer. However, the team has got a lot of issues in the backline too as there were tons of individual mistakes. A combination of not so perfectly measured actions resulted in the Gunners scoring.
The Seagulls completed 324 passes compared to their opponents 711 and won the point with only 74% pass accuracy compared to the Arsenal’s 89% and still managed to draw (1-1). Was this point a Christmas gift or they put hard work to deserve it?
Have you watched a movie a thousand times?
Watching Arsenal being completely sloppy during a defensive transition is like watching a movie a thousand times, however, there is no happy ending. Brighton’s counter-attacks were a result of the Arsenal players not reaching the ball on time and losing the loose ball duels. Then failing to make the transition and reach their opponents. And there are only two reasons for them not conceding more goals against Brighton: Bernd Leno and the Seagulls’ lack of a good finish. Although the team had 12 shots, compared to seven for the Londoners, only three of them were on target.
All defenders are lacking the needed speed, as in this case Kolasinac was outrun and couldnt help during the defensive transition. Brighton’s players managed to form nine counter-attacks and five of them ended with a shot. On the other side, Arsenal did it five times but couldn’t perform properly in the final third.
Positional disorganization, squad changes and formation
It seems like Unai Emery is still wandering between a few starting XI options and that has a bad influence on the whole team’s performance. The only thing that we should not put in doubt is that Aubameyang and Lacazette should both be starters. The other positive out of this game is that you could see Sead Kolasinac being combinative, contributing well and switching positions.
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