Brighton 0-0 Arsenal: Hello xG my old friend
Hello xG, our old friend, I’ve come to talk to you once again. After six Premier League games in which expected goals appeared to have been banished like Napoleon Bonaparte to Elba, Brighton drew 0-0 with Arsenal in a game they really should have won.
The Albion had 21 shots against the Gunners, eight corners and recorded 58 percent possession. Only two of those shots were admittedly on target, meaning that the xG was a surprisingly low 1.31 compared to have dominant a performance this felt. Still, it was undoubtedly two points dropped.
To be fair to Arsenal, you do have to give them some credit. It is not easy for a mid table Premier League side to go away to one of the top six and defend their way to a point. The Gunners did that, a sign of the progress being made by Mikel Arteta at the Emirates to avoid defeat against Brighton.
And what of the Albion’s progress? Forget if you can how much this match resembled the nightmare of last season for a minute.
Here we are, disappointed to only draw with The Arsenal, who arrived at the Amex having won their past four matches in a row without conceding a goal. That says everything.
To play the Gunners off the park is impressive enough. To do it without Yves Bissouma even more so. Tariq Lamptey sat watching from the bench and Adam Webster and Danny Welbeck from the stands.
Four first choice players all out and yet the Albion can still walk all over a European Super League elite giant. Bissouma would have helped Brighton dominate even more than they did and Welbeck with his finishing ability surely puts away one of those 21 opportunities if it falls to him.
Having seen his side struggle to dictate play in the 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace on Monday, Graham Potter shuffled his midfield to counter the absence of Bissouma.
His selection choice was another sign of the difference between this season and last. A year ago, Potter seemed to be smoking crack and picking his team using a roulette wheel. What else could explain some of the weird and wonderful decisions he landed upon?
In 2021-22 – or at least since starting Pascal Gross at left back on the opening day at Burnley – he seems to have realised that, actually, the best route to success might lie in doing something radical like using players in their actual positions.
The world and his wife could see that the Albion needed a more dynamic presence in midfield to replace Bissouma than Adam Lallana and Pascal Gross had offered at Selhurst Park.
That man was clearly Jakub Moder. To see Potter make the sensible choice of drafting Moder in alongside Gross and Lallana was a pleasant surprise.
It was the obvious decision to make and for once, we did not get Jason Steele in the middle of the park or something equally ludicrous.
Moder was excellent in Brighton 0-0 Arsenal, as were all 11 players actually. The stand out though was Marc Cucurella, who already looks like an absolute steal at £15 million.
Cucurella was up against another Premier League newcomer to have earned rave reviews since his summer arrival, Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Having pocketed every player he has come up against so far, the Japanese right back would have left Sussex wondering what the hell had just happened as he struggled to keep up with the flowing football and hair of Cucurella, who was literally everywhere.
The engine he has is quite something. One minute, he will be defending. The next, he will be the furthest player forward. There was one moment in the first half when he popped up on the right hand side of the pitch to intercept what looked like a dangerous forward pass.
Since Potter took over at Brighton, new signings have traditionally been bedded in slowly. That Cucurella has gone straight into the team and then been the Albion’s best player tells you everything you need to know about what a talent he is.
What helped Cucurella put in such a whirlwind performance in Brighton 0-0 Arsenal was the presence of the criminally underrated Dan Burn.
With Burn a steadying presence behind him as left sided centre back, Cucurella could rampage around wherever the hell he liked knowing that his 6’7 teammate was always going to be there.
Whilst Cucurella will take all the plaudits, Burn deserves a lot of credit for enabling the Spaniard to play as he did. Burn and the rest of the defence also deserve credit for recording an eighth clean sheet in 2021. Only Manchester City and Chelsea have more this calendar year.
To get that shutout, they had to weather a fair amount of Arsenal pressure in the opening 10 minutes. The Gunners were clearly in confident mood following their 3-1 victory over Spurs in the North London Derby and they knocked the ball about well.
Once Moder and Lallana in particular began to establish a foothold on the game though, it was a different story for the following 80 minutes.
Brighton’s first real opportunity arrived midway through the first half. Aaron Ramsdale got in a bit of a mess from a Neal Maupay delivery when challenged by Shane Duffy and the loose ball fell to Lewis Dunk, six yards out and with the goal gaping.
Somehow, Dunk managed to put the ball over the bar. It was last seen heading over Rottingdean and out towards the Rampion Wind Farm.
An early contender for the coveted WAB Miss of the Season Award, although had Dunk hit the back of the net then chances are that it would have been disallowed for a foul on Ramsdale anyway.
A beautiful passing move created the Albion’s next opportunity. Maupay chipped into the box where Lallana showed the sort of pace that should be impossible for a man whose body is made of cheese to produce a flying volley across the area.
Trossard looked set to convert until a stunning piece of defending from a certain Ben White managed to turn the ball behind for a corner before the Vampire of Genk could pounce.
White is already proving his worth to Arsenal, this being their fifth consecutive clean sheet since he returned from Covid. Even so, it still seems mad that Brighton 0-0 Arsenal was the first time he had played in front of a full Amex and yet Brighton have pocketed £50 million for him.
And when we say full, we obviously mean full in Paul Barber’s world as there were once again empty seats dotted around. Further proof that the club’s controversial season ticket sharing scheme is not working.
Next to miss was Burn, who found himself on the end of a pinpoint David Beckham-esque cross from Dunk of all people out on the right.
At the very least, Burn should have got his header on target but once again, a Brighton effort posed more of a threat to the Arsenal fans gathered behind the goal than Ramsdale.
The chances kept coming. Cucurella robbed Tomiyasu and picked out Lallana who was thwarted by White. Maupay then tried an interesting overhead kick which was inches wide.
Arsenal fired a couple of warning shots as the first half came to a close, Emile Smith Rowe delivering an inviting cross which Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang should have got on the end of. Thomas Partey then whistled one close to Robert Sanchez’s upright.
Potter’s team talk at half time would have been an easy one – put the ball in the bloody net. Arsenal looked set to do that when Aubameyang went racing clear and rounded Sanchez, only for Duffy to pull off one of the best last man tackles you will ever see when the goal was gaping for the Gunners captain.
The offside flag did eventually go up against Aubameyang, but it was still an incredible piece of defending every bit as good as the stuff White was producing at the other end. The renaissance of King Shane continues.
Maupay had another go at an overhead kick but this one was Jonathan Obika II as it went into orbit. The final 15 minutes then became a flurry of opportunities, one going to to Arsenal and the rest the Albion.
Sanchez kept out Smith Rowe’s effort from a tight angle with his first save of the evening. Ramsdale was then called into action, scrambling to claw out Cucurella’s cross-shot that the 50mph wind caused chaos with.
The Arsenal goalkeeper then had to be alert to clear substitute Solly March’s knockdown when Maupay was poised to finish.
When Duffy put a free header wide in the final few minutes, you sensed this was going to be one of those nights – if that feeling had not gripped you already.
Potter spoke afterwards about Brighton 0-0 Arsenal being as good a performance as there has been during his reign so far. He was right.
Despite the draw and an unwanted reunion with xG, it still feels like something special is happening at the Amex this season. The second international break of the campaign arrives with the Albion fifth in the table on 14 points from seven matches.
If they can replicate that two-points-per-game form over the entire season – and yes, there are tougher examinations to come – then Brighton will finish the campaign on 78 points. That was enough for third last year.
These are heady times which we should be thankful for – and enjoy whilst they last. The done thing at the minute seems to be harking back to that 1997-98 season at Gillingham as a sign of how far Brighton have come.
You do not even need to go that far in history. 11 years ago, we would have been sat out at Withdean watching football in those conditions.
It would have taken until Christmas Eve to dry out. And here we are, disappointed to draw with Arsenal, fifth in the Premier League and with an actual roof over our heads – which at least provided shelter for those in the West Upper. Less so for anyone at the front by the looks of things.
Still, you take getting wet to watch Brighton push for Europe, don’t you?
