ARSENAL ENDED A difficult week in miserable fashion as they lost 2-1 to Brighton and Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium.
First-half goals from Lewis Dunk and Glenn Murray secured all three points for the home side, despite Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang halving the deficit before the break.
The result is certain to pile more pressure on Gunners manager Arsene Wenger, who was the subject of angry chants from visiting fans demanding his departure. Arsenal went into the match on the back of consecutive 3-0 defeats to Manchester City in the EFL Cup final and Premier League, and they found themselves in more trouble when Dunk broke the deadlock seven minutes in.
Murray’s header, his sixth goal in 2018, put Brighton two up after a mistake by Laurent Koscielny, prompting an angry response from the travelling supporters. Aubameyang got a goal back but it was not enough to prevent a fourth defeat in a row in all competitions for the Gunners, marking their worst run since 2002 and leaving them facing a major challenge to finish in the top four.
Arsenal began the match on the front foot but found themselves behind seven minutes in, with Dunk sweeping the ball into the net from 12 yards out after Shane Duffy had beaten Petr Cech to a corner.
The Gunners keeper saved a good Pascal Gross shot as Brighton threatened again, with Dunk and Duffy both heading over from promising positions as the visiting defence failed to deal with routine set-pieces. With 26 minutes gone, they gifted the home side their second goal.
Koscielny’s wayward pass was sent out wide to Gross, and his curling cross from the right was headed down and beneath the body of Cech by Murray. ‘We want Wenger out’ was heard loudly from the away end but Aubameyang snatched a lifeline out of nothing two minutes before half-time, flicking Granit Xhaka’s strike into the net despite the best efforts of Mat Ryan.
Koscielny almost levelled the match just before the break, rattling the left-hand post with a firm header, and only a flying Ryan save stopped Mesut Ozil blasting home just before the hour mark. Referee Stuart Attwell made a smart call not to award a penalty when Xhaka went to ground in the area, although Sead Kolasinac was fortunate to escape punishment for a shoulder challenge on Ezequiel Schelotto that ended the Brighton full-back’s game.
Wenger threw on Danny Welbeck in the closing stages but there was to be no salvation for the Gunners, who are 13 points adrift of fourth-place Tottenham with just nine matches remaining ahead of their huge Europa League trip to face AC Milan.
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Great to have players like McCloskey step up when called upon. Conan too, both were good tonight for players with not much game time so far.
Henderson justified his starting berth. Hard to know if he or Ryan will start next week.
@Joe O’Regan: henderson won me over last 2 games being brillent james ryan is my fave irish player but hendo will start
@Joe O’Regan: I’m backing my lip reading skills and saying Ryan has broken his hand and will be out.
@Henry Bourke: yeah he looked very uncomfortable after the game , I think Baird takes his spot on the bench
Great to see Crowley showing his class, tried a bit hard perhaps but otherwise what a talent
@William O’Gorman: strikes me as a player that starts slowly and then ramps up quick , he felt his way into the game and was finishing it very strong , the cross field kick was a beauty
@William O’Gorman: Cross field kick was class. He offers more than Byrne definitely but Johnny is still the only man we won’t win the world cup without.
How schoeman wasn’t given a red!!!
Phenomenal – our defence as good as our attack. Hopefully no major injuries for next week.
@Daithi Mc Ghiollamhairtin: agree 100 percent they love to defend
My Gawd what a team,and they are getting better
Outstanding from ireland they love to defend and the attack is amazing bring on new zealand im very confident
Thought Ireland were fantastic as usual in defense and when stretching Scotland out wide punished them in attack. For all the talk from Scotland, that was disappointing. No directness in back play or power going forward , seemed to throw the ball backwards and be pushed back more often than not rather that taking Ireland on directly more in back play.. … Finn was also disappointing… Just seemed to be going through the motions chucking the ball around (no clever chips or anything to get over the gain line) , overall a hiding from ireland and game finished at half time. Next week is a different kettle of fish for Ireland and SA… Now the WC really starts…
@Stuart: Irelands tactic to deal with Russell was to give him as much time as he wanted , they just read his passes and turned over the receiver, Russell seemed to get more and more agitated and made no impact – he is incredibly overrated
Wonder what the SA water boy thought of that performance, not to mention Nienabar’s conspiracy theory! And he’s coming to Ireland next season???
Let’s leave the nonsense to Boks supporters! Nienabar got asked a loaded question about the fix and answered that he didn’t think Irl or Scot would stoop to that!
Looks like Lowe has a scratch on his eye,how long does that take to recover?
@Rugbyanbeer: 2-3 days , he’ll be fine
Hopefully Murray Kinsella and the 42 will finally accept that we have a world class team without bigging up the opposition for click bait reaction.