Arsenal let more points slip through their fingers as Brighton and Hove Albion fought back to draw with the Gunners.
From a Fantasy perspective, Joao Pedro (£5.7m) owners and very few others emerged from this contest with much to show.
Our next Scout Notes takes in the Saturday evening clash on the south coast.
- READ MORE: Will Liverpool v Man Utd be postponed? The latest updates on Sunday morning
- READ MORE: Brighton v Arsenal stats, shot maps, heat maps and more in our Match Centre
HAVERTZ + ODEGAARD ILL, NWANERI INJURED
Despite Mikel Arteta saying he would likely be fit for Gameweek 20, Kai Havertz (£7.9m) missed out again through illness.
Martin Odegaard (£8.4m) was meanwhile restricted to substitute duty for similar reasons.
“Kai tried but he really was very honest and said: ‘I can’t even train, I’m not feeling good at all’. We tried yesterday to see if he could train and he tried his best but he wasn’t able to do that. Martin didn’t train and said ‘I will see how I feel tomorrow’ and he did his best to be here because we know the numbers that we have.” – Mikel Arteta
Gabriel Martinelli (£6.8m) was also on the bench, emerging at half-time, with Arteta alluding to “issues” affecting the Brazilian ahead of kick-off.
Worse was to come as Ethan Nwaneri (£4.5m), scorer of Arsenal’s only goal, had to be removed at the break.
“Really bad news because I think we lost him. We had to take him off at half-time with some muscular issues.” – Mikel Arteta on Ethan Nwaneri
LOW ON CHANCES
With Bukayo Saka (£10.3m), Havertz and Odegaard not in the starting XI, perhaps it was no surprise that this wasn’t a free-flowing Arsenal display.
Quality chances were at a premium.
The Gunners’ best one outside of their goal, when Gabriel Jesus (£6.9m) ran through in the 10th minute, shouldn’t have even counted in the stats column as he was offside.
Again, the narrative when Arsenal struggle for goals is that their open-play creativity is leaving something to be desired. That’s conveniently forgetting five-goal wins at West Ham United and Crystal Palace in the last month or so, as well as Wednesday’s victory over Brentford.
There is some truth in that criticism, though. Here again, their best bet for goals looked to be set pieces. Jesus nodded over one corner, while there was some clever movement and fiendish free-kicks from Declan Rice (£6.2m) that produced a couple of nearly moments.
The Gunners, indeed, are ranked very much mid-table for open-play xG (per 90 minutes) this season:
They’re a long way from being as toothless as Everton, but it’s also fair to say they’ve not been as swashbuckling as, say, Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur this season.
Brighton could argue that they had the better chances. Outside of their contentious penalty, which Joao Pedro despatched, Simon Adingra (£5.2m) skewed wide from an excellent position and Yankuba Minteh‘s (£5.0m) cross-shot was agonisingly unconverted late on.
DUNK INJURY, WHY MITOMA WAS BENCHED AGAIN
Pedro ended a seven-match goalless drought although he was once again indebted to a spot-kick to find the net.
Among Premier League players, only Mohamed Salah and Cole Palmer (12 each) have scored more penalties in all competitions since since the start of last season than Brighton’s João Pedro (11).
*Refuses to refer to him as João Penro* pic.twitter.com/1yuSmrWdAv
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) January 4, 2025
He didn’t really look like scoring elsewhere, the number nine role again not suiting him as he drifted wide and deep regardless. Still, penalty-taking duties is a big reason why many own him in the first place.
“I think Joao is a key player and he’s also one of our leaders, today he was our captain. He showed a good performance, not only in possession, also out of possession.
“Every player has like bad phases in his development, in his process and we are there to help him, we are there to give him the right support and advices and I’m sure he will come back really strong.” – Fabian Hurzeler when asked about Joao Pedro’s recent ‘struggle for confidence’
Albion were without Lewis Dunk (£4.3m), a “slight” calf injury putting paid to his involvement. Igor Julio (£4.4m) also hobbled off.
“It didn’t look perfect, so we have to wait for scan.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Igor Julio
This was another match in which Kaoru Mitoma (£6.4m) didn’t start, with Hurzeler explaining his thinking after full-time.
“Because we have a big squad and we have big potential in the team and I think he played a lot of games before, especially in the first half of the season. He also played for Japan, he had long travels, so I think that he was a bit tired and you felt it, but he always has a big impact when he comes into the game. He’s a special player for us, one of the best players we have, and I’m sure that he will be back on the pitch as a starter soon. But it’s good to have competition. It’s good that every player recognises that they have to give their best also in training to deserve to play.” – Fabian Hurzeler on why Kaoru Mitoma didn’t start
