Arsenal vs Brighton & Hove Albion 06/12/19

6 December 2019

Arsenal will fight tooth and nail to overcome a severe crisis when they take on an out-of-sorts Brighton & Hove Albion side at the Emirates Stadium this midweek.

Winless in their last six Premier League (PL) outings (D4, L2), the hosts are going through the most challenging period in England’s top-tier since 1994. While three of their draws in that period came by the same 2-2 scoreline, both Arsenal’s defeats have seen them draw a blank. Freddie Ljungberg, who was appointed an interim manager after Unai Emery’s dismissal, will try to snap Arsenal’s three-game winless PL home streak (D3) and stretch their unbeaten top-flight home run to nine games (W3, D5). He can build confidence on the Gunner’s top-flight home record against Brighton (W1, D1), and the fact they have lost just one of six competitive H2Hs with the Seagulls in the 21st century (W3, D2, L1). Also, free-scoring Arsenal have found the net in all seven of their PL home matches this season, scoring two or more goals on five of those occasions.

As for the visitors, they travel to the Emirates on a run of three successive PL defeats, all of which have seen them concede at least two goals. Additionally, ever since a 3-0 demolition of Watford in the PL curtain-raiser, the Seagulls have failed to pick up a win away from home (D1, L5). All five of their PL road defeats this term have seen Brighton concede over 1.5 match goals, while four saw them draw a blank inside the first 45 minutes. It’s fair to say that four of those losses came against last season’s top-six teams, with three of them seeing Graham Potter’s side allow precisely two first-half goals.