“Throughout his time on the field, he was merely a passerby and had fewer touches than David Raya.”- Arsenal’s emblem After yesterday’s draw with Brighton, Thierry Henry maintains that Mikel Arteta, a 4/10 rated Arsenal flop, must be looking to drop.
Raya has more touches than Arsenal, so they should bench five or ten players after Brighton.
Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Brighton at the Emirates Stadium resulted in the Gunners’ first Premier League point loss of the new campaign under strange circumstances.
Kai Havertz darted onto Bukayo Saka’s through ball and lobbing the ball over the goalkeeper gave Mikel Arteta’s team a good-looking lead at the half.
Sadly, Declan Rice’s controversial dismissal in the second half altered the course of the match.
The momentum of the game completely changed at that point. Thanks to a nice close-range finish by Joao Pedro, the Seagulls were able to leave North London with a point at one point, controlling 81% of the ball for five minutes.
Arsenal still had a chance to win the match. In the second half, Havertz had a fantastic opportunity that Brighton’s goalkeeper stopped him from taking, but the German then turned provider and whipped the ball into Saka, who was denied by the Brighton keeper once more.
All things considered, the Premier League title contenders performed admirably to earn a point, but they will regret that incident involving Rice in the second half.
The reason Rice was sent off
A strong challenge in the first half resulted in a booking for the club’s record signing. Given a warning rightfully, Rice slid in, won nothing with the ball.
Nevertheless, it’s debatable if he was appropriately issued a second yellow.
In their haste to take the set play quickly from deep within their own half, Brighton was thwarted by Rice after the former West Ham player connected with Joel Veltman on the left side of the field.
Chaos broke out after Veltman kicked out and Rice shoved the ball away. The £105m man was rightfully dismissed under the letter of the law. It is precisely this lack of consistency that will aggravate the Gunners.
Pedro also kicked the ball away in the first forty-five minutes, but he did so much farther than Rice. Was he warned? No, he wasn’t.
All in all, Arsenal was forced to play with ten men at the end of the match, and Rice will now miss an important away match against Tottenham following the international break.
Who will take Rice’s place when the Spurs play?
Those who support Arsenal will find this red to be a bitter pill to swallow. Rice would be essential away at the Spurs, but he won’t be available. Not Mikel Merino, either.
Sadly, he suffered an injury during his first full training session with the team. According to reports, Gabriel landed on him, injuring his shoulder and making the Spaniard’s first few weeks in the capital difficult.
Jorginho will probably join the team and partner Thomas Partey as a result. But once Rice returns and Merino is playing at his peak, the Ghanaian needs to be benched.
His performance against Brighton demonstrated why, even though it wasn’t appalling. Actually, Partey hasn’t had a terrible season either. After all, he did manage to score that crucial goal a week ago against Aston Villa.
The issue is that both his lack of athleticism and his shabby possession losses hurt this Arsenal team.
He made some excellent passes against Brighton, most notably into Saka on the right side, but he struggled to avoid Brighton’s press and gave up possession in confined areas inside their own half.
Partey vs Brighton
Minutes played
90
Touches
39
Accurate passes
19/25 (76%)
Key passes
0
Crosses
0
Long balls
3/5
Dribbles
1/1
Aerial duels won
1/1
Ground duels won
3/8
Possession lost
7x
Fouls
2
Tackles
1
Interceptions
5
Throughout the game, Partey did so seven times, or every 5.5 touches of the ball. You would expect better from a player in his position, without a doubt. Charles Watts of GOAL gave the reporter a 5/10 match rating, perfectly summarizing his performance as “struggled in possession.” made some excellent recovery tackles, but occasionally let the ball get away from him.
A 76% pass success rate served as a summary of that. Though not particularly impressive, it was Arsenal’s third-best score in the end. For a team that enjoys holding onto possession, that is a pretty concerning statistic.
The 31-year-old only prevailed in three of his eight bouts, which made things worse. Given that evidence, Merino’s inclusion is understandable. More duels than any other player in the top five leagues in Europe in 2023–2024 were won by him.
Therefore, Partey needs to be removed from the team permanently even though he will need to stay for the team’s trip to Tottenham in two weeks, barring an incredible performance there.
