Gunners Shock Seagulls What fun to watch Arsenal play away

Boo
By Our Brighton Correspondent
January 27 2013

It was 2pm Friday afternoon. Working at home in Brighton on my laptop when the emails arrived from Gill. “Sudden emergency, can’t use my season ticket tomorrow for the Brighton game – do you want it ?” There is a God. All these years, I doubted….. Being an Arsenal fan in Brighton has been fun this past week - huge interest and publicity about the game. The Green Mayor Bill Randall, a lifetime Gooner, has been teased all week about which team he would support. Kept his cards close to his chest above his Arsenal shirt – crafty politician.

So off I went yesterday afternoon to the wonderful Amex stadium outside Brighton – been there before to see the Seagulls. Decent team – many local fans see themselves as trying to “play the Arsenal way” in the Championship. Friendly atmosphere between the blue and white and reds - and what a lot of reds there were ! From before the game onwards we out-sang the Albion fans – a rare treat for an Arsenal fan who usually only gets to go to home games where we are always out-sung by opposition fans.

To the game itself: an exciting cup tie played in a good and generous spirit on both sides - especially from the Arsenal defence. From early on it was obvious that the Seagulls were playing everything down the right, targeting Santos. Pacy Seagull winger Will Buckley regularly skipped past him. There were a couple of early chances from that side – one was clearly offside though the ref missed it and Szczesny saved. A few minutes later he saved again and brilliantly distributed the ball quickly to Rosicky. He raced at the heart of the Seagull’s defence, passed to Podolski, who held it up for Giroud to strike a beauty in the top corner.

“One nil to the Arsenal” I assumed would strike up. But no, the Arsenal fans began to sing Hey Giroud to the tune of Hey Jude. Bear in mind I haven’t been to a game since early in the season, so the new Giroud chant was a revelation. And we kept it up all afternoon when all other inspiration failed. Giroud had a fine game – always a handful for the Seagull’s defence and unlucky not to get his hat trick with two second half efforts.

But you can always rely on the Arsenal defence to get other teams out a hole. From a corner, no one picked up Ashley Barnes as he strode through the Arsenal defence between Mertesacker and Szczesney and powerfully headed home. Back level and for the rest of the first half Brighton “out-Arsenaled” the Arsenal with tidy passing and occasional penetration.

Second half, we were much better. Rosicky in particular always drove us on and we looked more likely to score. It seemed harmless enough when Giroud got the ball in the box, but somehow he outmuscled the defender and whipped the ball in right in front of us for 2-1. A third seemed likely but again the defence was nowhere to be seen on a cross and we were back to 2-2.

The last refuge of rogues - fight!

Two small diversions at this point. Stung by the equaliser, the Arsenal fans started a brief homophobic chant about Brighton players holding hands. I thought I had heard it fleetingly in the first half but I couldn’t tell. This time it was fans close to me. I started shouting: stop that chant. My voice was drowned out but a few fans heard me and gave me a quizzical look. Homophobia: the last bastion of reaction. Then a fight broke out in the Arsenal section behind the goal. Some said a drunk – others an attempt to raise a banner. I don’t know.

Jack and Theo lift the game

We needed Jack and Theo to give us a lift and on they came. The tempo changed immediately. The biggest cheer of the afternoon went up from the Arsenal fans when the truly dreadful Santos went off. It was all Arsenal – you felt a goal would come and it did – Theo, albeit courtesy of a deflection.

Brighton gave a good account of themselves. As a local, I would love to see them promoted but I feel they will probably miss out. As for Arsenal, I know we have one of the best defences on paper in the Premiership, but the truth is it is totally unreliable. We lack an organiser – whether from the back four or defensive midfield. I guess there aren’t too many of them around in the January Transfer Window Sweet Shop, and they probably don’t come cheap. Without one, I fear our roller-coaster season will end in disappointment yet again.

DJarse 27 January 2013

Gunners Shock Seagulls What fun to watch Arsenal play away

Posted by: Arsenal Times (IP Logged)

Date: 27/01/2013 17:40

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:01:30:23:32:51 by Padre Pio.