Key events
An email: “Referees are supposed to apply common sense,” writes Martin. “Yes, Rice tapped the ball away but if you think the punishment for that should be 10 men be 11, you’re not seeing the wood from the trees.”
I would respectfully argue that referees are supposed to apply the laws of the game and one of those laws states that the punishment for kicking the ball away after a freekick has been awarded is a yellow card.
The fact that Declan Rice had already been the subject of an entirely deserved booking before he fell foul of this particular law was entirely his own fault, not that of the referee. Joel Veltman played Rice like a violin with a commendable demonstration of s-housery.
An email: “You want to be lenient and let the handball go, I’m fine with that,” writes Zach Neeley. “You want to be strict and give Rice a second yellow, fine. But swinging back and forth, even on the same incident with Rice, the ref has made himself the person on the pitch who most influenced the outcome.”
Full time: Arsenal 1-1 Brighton
It ends all square at the Emirates: Arsenal were deserving leaders at half-time following Kai Havertz’s excellent lobbed effort but the game was transformed by the dismissal of Declan Rice early in the second half.
Joao Pedro restored parity for Brighton soon afterwards and the visiting side dominated thereafter without being able to take advantage of their superior numbers. A point each seems about fair and the post-match and the post match interviews should make for fascinating listening.
90+6 min: Brighton win a free-kick in a good position wide on the left and Joao Pedro is booked for something he says to the referee a second later.
Arsenal clear the free-kick, while Brighton’s players appeal for a penalty for a perceived handball. They don’t get one despite a VAR check and it’s all over.
90+5 min: David Raya is booked for timewasting over a goal-kick.
90+4 min: Georginio Rutter misses an excellent chance to win the game for Brighton as he fails to make proper contact with an excellent cross from the left. The goal is at his mercy but his scuffed header goes harmlessly wide.
90+3 min: Brighton corner. Arsenal clear and threaten to attack on the break but are let down by a poor Saka pass to Martinelli.
90+3 min: David Raya rushes off his line to save bravely at the feet of Carlos Baleba on the edge of his six-yard box as the Brighton midfielder chased a through ball.
90+1 min: We’re into six minutes of added time, although I’d say if the Premier League offered Mikel Arteta a point now he’d snap their hand off.
89 min: Baleba shoots from just outside the area, catching Gabriel in the midriff with the ball and knocking him off his feet. Oof! The ball breaks back to Baleba, who sends his follow-up effort over the bar.
88 min: The ball breaks to Georginio Rutter in a decent shooting position on the inside right. Under the bouncing ball, he fires his effort high and wide.
86 min: The 10 men of Arsenal are pinned back, deep in their own half and have had just 19% of possession in the past five minutes.
83 min: “I find it difficult to have sympathy for Rice, given that he’d already been booked and then committed another bookable offence,” writes Andy Flintoff (not that one). “He knew precisely what he was doing, so he can’t blame the referee for that one.”
Agreed … and I will be interested to see what more measured Gooners of my acquaintance, including various Arseblog’s proprieter and various contributers to his site, make of it.
81 min: Ben White dispossesses Kaoru Mitoma with a perfectly timed tackle in the Arsenal penalty area, conceding a corner in the process. From that set-piece, they win another. Van Hecke gets to the second inswinger and heads wide, but clashes heads with his teammate Georginio Rutter in the process. They’re both OK.
79 min: Play stops so Jurrien Timber can receive treatment for an injury. He looks fit to continue but it seems he is is about to be replaced anyway. Yup, here comes Oleksandr Zinchenko.
77 min: It’s Verbruggen to the rescue for Brighton once again, denying a understandably weak Saka shot after the England international had stretched every sinew to connect with a wonderful low cross from Martinelli.
75 min: Oh my! Played clean through on goal with only Bart Verbruggen to beat, Kai Havertz is denied by the goalkeeper’s outstretched boot. The ball breaks to Gabriel Martinelli, who stays on his feet in the penalty area under a challenge from Van Hecke and then has his shot blocked by the Dutchman.
74 min: Arsenal susbtitution: Gabriel Martinelli on for Martin Odegaard. Brighton substitutions: Pervis Estupinan and Georginio Rutter on for Veltman and Minteh.
73 min: Hinshelwood’s delivery is excellent, Raya stays rooted to his line and Danny Welbeck heads over. A good chance goes to waste.
70 min: Before the free-kick can be taken, there’s a break in play so Joel Veltman can receive treatment for an injury. Arsenal’s supporters are as sympathetic as you might expect given the full-back’s role in Declan Rice’s sending-off.
70 min: Jurrien Timber is booked for a foul on Yankuba Minteh and Brighton have a free-kick wide on the left. Minteh gets booked too although I couldn’t tell you why.
69 min: Yasin Ayari’s delivery is poor and his inswinger sails straight into the gloves of David Raya.
69 min: Mitoma sends another excellent cross flashing through the Arsenal box but Welbeck is unable to connect under pressure from Gabriel. Brighton corner.
67 min: Rallied by their gesticulating captain, Martin Odegaard, Arsenal’s fans up the volume in a bid to get get behind their team.
65 min: That red card means Declan Rice will miss Arsenal’s upcoming north London derby against Spurs following the international break. His employers will be unable to appeal against the sending-off in a bid to get it overturned, because it was for two yellows rather than a straight red.
64 min: Mitoma cuts in from the left and drills the ball across the face of the Arsenal goal trying to pick out Welbeck, who is unable to get to it.
63 min: Brighton have had 72 percent possession in this second half and are now in the ascendency.
61 min: Going back to the Brighton equaliser, I can’t speak highly enough of Lewis Dunk’s assist. Having been badly at fault for Arsenal’s opener, he more than made up for his error with an inch-perfect assist from deep, threading the ball between Gabriel and William Saliba, right into the path of Minteh.
60 min: Yasin Ayari is teed up by Mitoma a couple of yards outside the Arsenal penalty area. His shot is blocked by Gabriel.
59 min: Arsenal substitute: Riccardo Calafiori on for Leandro Trossard. The Italian slots in at left back as Arsenal switch to a back five.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Brighton (Pedro 58)
Brighton equalise! Lewis Dunk plays a brilliant pass between Arsenal’s two centre-backs for Yankuba Minteh to run on to. His low shot is saved by David Raya and Joao Pedro scores on the follow-up from about seven yards out.
57 min: Anyway, back to the present, where 10-man Arsenal are trying to protect their one-goal lead. They’re about to bring on an Italian substitute with great hair.
54 min: Having said that, I think Veltman was very lucky to avoid punishment of any kind for booting Rice. In mitigation, a good lawyer could argue that he was in the process of kicking the ball a split-second before Rice rolled it out of the way to prevent him taking the quick free-kick.
52 min: Arsenal’s supporters are very, very unhappy and I suppose you can’t blame them. I presume they, like me, thought Veltman was going to get his marching orders and couldn’t believe their eyes when Rice was shown red. To be clear, he did kick the ball away and that is a yellow card offence.
Red card: Arsenal down to 10 men (Rice)
49 min: In trying to take a free-kick down by the corner flag deep inside his own half after Declan Rice had kicked the ball away to prevent him doing so, Joel Veltman boots the Arsenal midfielder on the knee and knocks him off his feet.
Referee Chris Kavanagh takes out his red card. Now here’s the thing – I presumed it was going to be shown to Veltman, but it’s Rice who goes after getting his second yellow … presumably for kicking the ball away.
47 min: Hinshelwood sticks out a leg to block a Declan Rice sahot on goal after the Arsenal midfielder connected with a deft Timber backheel from the byline. The ball goes out for a corner and Rice picks out Gabriel at the back post. He’s unable to steer his effort on target.
Second half: Arsenal 1-0 Brighton
46 min: Play resumes with Arsenal on the ball and protecting a one-goal lead. There are no further changes on either side following the first half withdrawal of Brighton midfielder James Milner due to injury.
A question: “How is it that a ball coming off the lower shoulder on the way to the goal (Dango Ouattara for Bournemouth last week) can be ruled out by VAR as a handball as a ‘question of fact’, but a goalbound shot that is clearly blocked by a forearm (Ben White’s shot stopped by Lewis Dunk today) cannot be ruled a handball and penalty on the same grounds?” asks Angus Chisholm.
“All of this suggests that PGMOLs ever-evolving heuristics for interpreting the rules of football are barely thought-out reactions to punditry, and that the actual decision making practices of VARs are ad hoc, vibes-based and inconsistent (which has in fact been confirmed by audio recordings from the VAR booth).”
An email: “Have people gone a bit over the top about Brighton and their start to the season?” asks David Wall. “They could quite easily have lost to United last weekend (and if Zirkzee had been able to stop sliding on the wet grass they probably would have done), and I’m not sure victories over Everton in August really count that much.
“And I think Brighton were top of the table this time last year too before their season seemed to tail off after they were knocked out of Europe. Is the over-reaction based less on their games and more on the fact that people are amazed that an adult can manage other adults who are slightly older than him?”
Well, as far as Everton are concerned, I would reply with the hoary old saw that you can only beat the team that’s in front of you. And the win over United? Going by your argument, you could say Arsenal were similarly lucky to beat Aston Villa despite quite obviously being the better team for long periods of the game.
Half-time: Arsenal 1-0 Brighton
Peep! The players troop off for their half-time brew with Arsenal the deserving leaders courtesy of Kai Havertz’s well taken lobbed effort.
45+3 min: Partey fouls Joao Pedro and gets what looks like a very harsh booking. Free-kick for Brighton, wide on the left. Hinshelwood’s curled delivery into the box is cleared by Gabriel.
45+2 min: Leandro Trossard cuts in from the left and shoots towards the near post. Verbruggen gets down to make the save.
45 min: The ball goes out for what should be a Brighton corner but Arsenal are awarded a goal-kick. Nobody in yellow objects, a state of affairs that suggests they didn’t notice the ball being deflected out off the back of Gabriel’s outstretched leg.
42 min: Declan Rice is booked for a foul on Joel Veltman. Fabian Hurzeler thinks it should have been a red card, complains at length to the fourth official and is shown a yellow card of his own.
It was a fairly rash lunge on Rice’s part but the force was not excessive and his studs were down. A yellow seems fair enough although other opinions will almost certainly be available.
41 min: It was an extremely tidy finish by Havertz but Lewis Dunk was badly at fault in the build-up, allowing himself to be shouldered off the ball by a man approximately half his size. Spotting the danger, Verbruggen rushed off his line to the edge of his area only for Havertz lift the ball over him.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Brighton (Havertz 39)
Arsenal lead! From about 20 yards out, Kai Havertz lifts the ball over Bart Verbruggen and watches it bounce into the net after receiving a pass from Bukayo Saka, who had outmuscled Lewis Dunk as the duo contested a fifty-fifty bouncing ball.
35 min: As assorted Arsenal players ping the ball to and fro across the halfway line, Brighton’s 10 outfield player maintain an extremely compact shape well outside their own penalty area, covering about 15 yards of the pitch.
As soon as Arsenal try to play the ball in behind to exploit the massive gap between their defensive line and Bart Verbruggen, the men in yellow step forward and catch them offside. Has Fabian Hurzeler been studying the George Graham era Arsenal playbook?
34 min: After an extremely difficult start, Hinshelwood has grown into the game and now clears a through ball from deep played towards Saka.
32 min: Bukayo Saka takes a bang in the face from Hinshelwood as the duo contest a high ball and goes down holding his face. Play is stopped so he can receive treatment, prompting Fabian Hurzeler to go nuts in his technical area.
30 min: Minteh takes down a crossfield pass and tries to pick out Danny Welbeck with a dink. A poor Kai Havertz defensive header drops for Mitoma, who volleys across the face of goal and wide.
29 min: Brighton win a corner but waste it when Minteh overhits his delivery.
28 min: Arsenal’s remain on top but are no longer as rampant, their momentum appearing to have been stalled by the break in play when James Milner was down receiving treatment.
