The Media Review: Arsenal

The beauty of beating one of the top clubs on their own turf is that some of the biggest names in sports writing are often there to witness it. And sometimes they even mention the Albion in their reports.

Only kidding! Of course most of the headlines and intros to Albion’s 3-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium focused on what was effectively the end of Arsenal’s thrilling challenge for the Premier League title, a season-long story arc that has finally petered out in recent weeks. 

But the football correspondents and chief sports writers in the press seats gave full credit to Roberto De Zerbi’s men, who have now beaten Arsenal twice this season, Chelsea twice, Liverpool twice and Manchester United twice.  

In The Times, for example, Henry Winter reported that “some Arsenal players slumped to their knees at the final whistle, some balancing awkwardly on their haunches. They were down and all but out of the title race. They had been outplayed by Roberto De Zerbi’s terrific team. 

“The focus will be on Arsenal’s loss and their slump, but Brighton deserve celebrating. Moisés Caicedo impressed throughout, and there was one moment midway through the second half that encapsulated Brighton’s attitude. Arsenal’s captain, Martin Odegaard, was in possession and was immediately ambushed by Pascal Gross, Danny Welbeck and Evan Ferguson. Brighton hunted in packs, hounded Arsenal and took them apart.

“There is so much belief in this team of De Zerbi’s. Alexis Mac Allister turned Saka. Then Levi Colwill, racing left to clear, hooked the ball upfield where Ferguson held off Kiwior but shot wide. De Zerbi was so engaged in the game, sharing every fluctuation with his team, and eventually the water bottle at his seat.

“Yet his team were in control and took the lead six minutes into the second half. Arsenal were simply too sluggish to cope with Brighton’s speed. Colwill drove the ball long from the back, releasing Mitoma, who held off White and shaped to go inside. Estupiñán was flying past on the overlap so Mitoma reversed the pass to him. The Ecuadorian crossed with his left, but Kieran Tierney cleared. 

“The ball dropped back to Estupiñán, who met it this time with his left foot, slightly awkwardly, sending it down into the ground but rising towards Enciso. The Paraguayan steered his header over the line. Arsenal just froze.

“Arteta tried to reclaim the game with his changes. But Brighton were simply better, sharper and more inventive. Those Arsenal nerves surfaced again after 86 minutes when Ramsdale’s pass was met far too casually by Trossard, whose pass was picked off by Gross. Deniz Undav took over and calmly lobbed Ramsdale, who beat the turf in frustration.

“Arsenal fans streamed out in gathering numbers, even with eight minutes added on. More headed to the exits when Brighton added a third, after Estupiñán played the poacher after Ramsdale saved from Undav. Brighton fans launched into Sussex by the sea. Arsenal were simply all at sea, and sinking.”

Oliver Holt of The Daily Mail wrote that “Arsenal pushed Manchester City closer than anyone could have imagined at the start of the season but on a glorious sun-kissed May day in north London, their title dream died with a humbling defeat to a brilliant Brighton team that killed it with cleverness.

“They were utterly outplayed by Roberto de Zerbi’s side in front of their own fans. They looked exhausted, mentally and physically. They were outfought, and outwitted tactically. There were times – the majority of the match, actually - when Brighton toyed with them.

“They raged against the dying of the light in brief moments in the closing minutes. Home-grown heroes Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson came off the bench and injected urgency and desperation into their quest for an equaliser after Julio Enciso’s 50th minute opener.

“But four minutes from the end, former Brighton star Leandro Trossard tried to flick on a short pass from Aaron Ramsdale, the ball rebounded to Deniz Undav and he lobbed the ball over the Arsenal goalkeeper in a high arc and watched it bounce into the net.

“The clock had ticked over into eight minutes of added time when Brighton completed Arsenal’s misery. Ramsdale pushed out a shot from Undav but it fell straight to Estupinan and he forced it back past the goalkeeper. 

“De Zerbi ran down the touchline and did a knee-slide, Jose Mourinho-style. The architect of this stunning victory, his star is very much in the ascendant. Brighton are now in prime position to qualify for European competition.

“The early part of the game was dominated by a simmering feud between Gabriel Martinelli and most of the Brighton team. It began soon after the whistle when Kaoru Mitoma rose to head a ball in his own half and Martinelli flattened him by thudding his arm into his upper body. On another day at another ground with another referee, it could have been a red card. Soon afterwards, he was replaced by former Brighton forward, Leandro Trossard.

“Trossard did not take long to make his mark. He cut inside Caicedo 15 minutes before the interval but even though his shot beat Jason Steele, it grazed the top of the Brighton crossbar.

“Five minutes later, Brighton carved out the best opening of the game so far. Mitoma turned Ben White one way and then the other on the right side of the Arsenal box and made room for a cross. Aaron Ramsdale got a hand to it but the deflection pushed it towards Julio Enciso. It was slightly behind the Paraguay forward and he hooked his left foot shot over the bar.

“Enciso got another chance five minutes after the break and this time, he took it. Mitoma tormented poor White again down the Brighton left and when Pervis Estupinan volleyed a cross into the ground, it bounced across the six yard box and Enciso stooped to glance a header past Ramsdale.

“Arsenal tried but Brighton were simply too good for them. De Zerbi’s team taught them a football lesson. Undav’s lob and Estupinan’s rebound put them out of their misery.”

Dave Kidd of The Sun wrote that “Brighton, who have now won on four of their last five visits to the Emirates, are well on course to qualify for Europe for the first time in their history. And although the match was ill-tempered and ragged, Brighton deserved their victory. They had suffered an extraordinary 5-1 home defeat against the Toffees but they put that right here and look nailed-on for a place in the Europa League next season. 

“During the occasional outbreaks of football, Aaron Ramsdale pushed wide a rising effort from Enciso and Gabriel Jesus was denied by Jason Steele’s boot when he tried to sneak one in at the near post.

“Brighton’s desire to play out from the back looked more like an obsessive compulsive disorder than a game-plan and Arsenal were having some joy by pressing Brighton high and forcing a string of mishaps.

“Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi, who makes Arteta look like the Dalai Lama, was in a permanent stage of rage, kicking his seat. 

“Frustrations were rising around the Emirates even before Brighton scored an incredibly soft opener on 51 minutes. Estupinan’s initial cross was headed out by Kieran Tierney but when the Ecuador full-back scuffed his second effort, Arsenal centre-half Jakub Kiwior had gone down clutching his ankle, allowing Enciso score from close range with a free header.

“Arteta was booked for gobbing off and he wasn’t the only Arsenal man lacking composure as a succession of attacks broke down in the final third. But Brighton’s second goal was as avoidable as the first from Arsenal’s point of view.

“Ramsdale’s pass to Trossard saw the Belgian mugged by Pascal Gross who fed Undav to lob the keeper. Estupinan added a third in injury-time after Ramsdale could only push Undav’s shot into his path.”

In The Guardian, David Hytner wrote that Arsenal “were brought to their knees by Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton, who gave a second-half masterclass and can scent European qualification for the first time in club history. 

“A Champions League place will probably prove beyond Brighton, the Europa League more likely, but the finest season in their history just keeps on giving. 

“Arsenal wanted to stop Brighton from playing out from the back, to pinch the ball high up, and a good deal of the jeopardy came in Brighton’s first third when they were in possession, the game shaped by what they did or did not do with the ball. 

“Arsenal forced errors from their opponents – and in dangerous areas, too – but Brighton stuck to their guns, some of their build-up play so easy on the eye; the reward always worth the risk, in the eyes of De Zerbi.

“There was the moment in the early exchanges when the Brighton goalkeeper, Jason Steele, just about threaded a pass out to Gross, Arsenal so close to a crucial interception, before the midfielder released Enciso with a long ball up the left. Tracked by Gabriel Magalhães, Enciso cut inside and forced Ramsdale to tip behind.

“Brighton shimmered with menace and they broke through after Mitoma got to a long ball ahead of White and ushered in Estupiñán on the overlap. His first cross was headed back to him by Kieran Tierney and when he tried again, close to the byline on the left, banging the ball into the ground and watching it rear up, there was Enciso to glance home.

“Brighton continued to trust their possession game, the outstanding Alexis Mac Allister pulling the strings. Mitoma tormented White while it was difficult to believe that Enciso is only 19. His assurance was startling. Nelson banged just wide and Trossard shot straight at Steele but it was Brighton who would lengthen their stride.”

Albion admirer Sam Dean of The Daily Telegraph wrote of “a Brighton team of remarkable bravery and skill” and said that “Arsenal were outplayed and outclassed by a team that came to north London to impose themselves, to play their own game, and succeeded in the most eye-catching style.

“Few opponents have done to Arsenal what Brighton did to them there. This was a match that was played almost entirely on the visiting side’s terms, with Roberto De Zerbi’s team building from the back with courage, and then attacking with menace. It was Brighton, not Arsenal, who played the more adventurous football. Brighton, not Arsenal, who took most of the risks.

“The visitors struck three times in the second half, through Julio Enciso – the latest jewel they have plucked from South America – Deniz Undav and Pervis Estupinan, and they were so irritating to Arsenal that the Emirates Stadium ultimately became a cauldron of anger and frustration, rather than a place of any real hostility or intensity.

“Overall, though, the team that played the better football on the day was the team that left with three points. De Zerbi clearly knew it, as he sprinted down the touchline in celebration of Undav’s second. When the third went in, from Estupinan, the Italian slid to his knees on the touchline. 

“A seismic result for the title race, then, and also for the race for European places. Brighton are determined to qualify for continental competition and their response here, to their bizarre 5-1 loss to Everton last week, was a measure of their quality and their developing mentality. Arsenal had run out of ideas long before the end, with their fans streaming towards the exits as Brighton’s supporters cheered every pass.”

The Daily Mirror’s Darren Lewis relished the performance of Albion’s number 22, writing that “in his sleep tonight, Ben White’s hips will turn this way and that before he wakes up at around 2am in a cold sweat.

“Only then will he be reassured, mercifully that it really is over. The Kaoru Mitoma nightmare by then will be a distant memory. As the kids say these days, Brighton’s Japanese creative genius 'cooked' him. He violated him in a sporting context.

“Julio Enciso, substitute Deniz Undav and left-back Pervis Estupinian scored the goals. But Mitoma pulled the strings. He raided Arsenal so regularly down the left he should have been afforded his own strip of grass.

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Pos	Team	Pld	GD	Pts
5	Liverpool LIV	38	+28	67
6	Albion Albion	38	+19	62
7	Aston Villa AVL	38	+5	61

“Not only is he a heist of Tom Cruise proportions when you consider Brighton paid just £2.6million for him from Japanese side Kawasaki Frontale, Mitoma is also indestructible. Gabriel Martinelli, remarkably, escaped punishment from referee Andy Madley for trying to take him out with a forearm smash in the opening minutes.

“Mitoma is a snapshot of Seagulls' business that has impressed to such an extent that the Brighton recruitment team should be awarded the Nobel Prize for economics. Add manager Roberto De Zerbi who did a Jose Mourinho for the second and third goals, racing down the touchline, and you can see why their operation is the envy of every team outside the top six.

“Europe is the least De Zerbi and his team deserve. They are crying out for a bigger stage. To step up a level after an outstanding campaign. If you are De Zerbi, why would you go to bigger clubs with unrealistic targets they can't fund properly when you can continue polishing the Amex diamonds with the time and patience you need?

“Summer will be a win-win for them. Yes, the big guns will come for Mitoma, Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister. But any exits will leave Brighton’s bank balance bulging while European football will attract even more impressive talents. The future is bright. The future is blue and white.”