Arsenal was thrashed today by Brighton and their supporters felt the bitter frustration and the overall sense of helplessness. The supporters were clamouring " we want winger out" It was the 34th minute, their team was 2-0 down to Chris Hughton’s well-drilled Brighton & Hove Albion and all they could do was conclude that Arsène Wenger’s time was up. Brighton performed well. They weaken Arsenal’s defensiveness, within which the goalkeeper, Petr Cech, was a glaring culprit and they might have had more during a period when Arsenal were gripped by indecision and nervousness. On the back of goals from Lewis Dunk and Glenn Murray, this was a win that reinforced the sense that Brighton are staying up with a degree of comfort.
Their dreadful away form continues and the statistics also showed that this was a sixth defeat in eight matches in all competitions. Wenger’s suffering knows no bounds. Arsenal have come to look so vulnerable that one of the questions to cling to them has been when, and not if, they concede. They went behind in the early running and it was a goal that left Wenger shaking his head sadly on the bench. When Pascal Gross hung a corner up towards the far post, it looked like one for Cech to claim. Except that he got himself boxed in and, rather abruptly, there was Shane Duffy going up for the ball with him and winning it. From Duffy’s header, Dunk stretched to steer home. There had been doubt over the award of the corner, with the last touch possibly coming off José Izquierdo. It did not excuse the subsequent breakdown. It was the prompt for a period of Brighton pressure when, quite frankly, Arsenal fell apart. It culminated in the hosts’ second goal which was another horror show for Wenger’s defence – but there were several other heart-stopping moments. When the Arsenal player in possession looked forward, there were precious few options for him; it was the sign of a team whose confidence was at rock bottom and the errors followed. Alex Iwobi lost the ball when he had nothing on and, in a flash, Gross had supplied Anthony Knockaert and he was denied by a good Cech block. Cech had previously saved from Gross while Brighton threatened further from corners. Dunk sent one free header over the crossbar. Brighton’s second followed a loose Laurent Koscielny pass out from the back and they worked it quickly to Gross on the right. Shkodran Mustafi allowed Murray far too much space behind him and, when Gross crossed, the striker headed down and in. Cech went down in instalments and the way he allowed the ball to squirm underneath him was soft. Arsenal’s frustration was summed up when Jack Wilshere, who was back from injury, jumped into a poor tackle on Knockaert in the 40th minute and was booked. Aubameyang, who had seen an early shot blocked by Duffy, touched home from Granit Xhaka’s pass, after good work by Iwobi. And, on 44 minutes, Koscielny rose to flick a deflected header off the near post from Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s cross.
Sead Kolasinac escaped a second booking after he cleaned out Ezequiel Schelotto; the Brighton full-back was helped off in obvious distress. But when Aubameyang could not squeeze his shot past Ryan in stoppage time, there would be no escape for Wenger and Arsenal.
