5/10 Arsenal dud may have just cost them the title

And with that, Arsenal‘s title bid may well be done. Mikel Arteta‘s men are unbeaten across the last ten league outings but there have been too many laboured dis[lays with not much creativity.

Arsenal went into the break against Brighton leading 1-0 through the incredible Ethan Nwaneri who despite being 17 years of age, has the world at his feet with two Premier League goals already this term.

However, the Seagulls fought back and secured a 1-1 draw after Joao Pedro’s controversial penalty.

It was a bizarre one, truth be told. William Saliba and Pedro challenged for the ball, grazed heads and Anthony Taylor after a period of deliberation eventually pointed to the penalty spot.

Arteta and his team may well rue that moment but they just didn’t do enough in the final third themselves. A telling stat was the fact that Arsenal only had one shot on target in the second half.

With Tottenham Hotspur to come next week, it’s a huge north London derby. They do, at least, have Nwaneri at their disposal but they cannot rely on a teenager to keep them in the title race.

More players need to step up…

Arsenal’s best players against Brighton

With Martin Odegaard on the bench because of an illness and Kai Havertz missing from the squad entirely due to the same reasoning, Arteta needed to find a creative or goalscoring spark from somewhere.

Gabriel Jesus has been the go-to man in recent months, scoring twice against Crystal Palace in the league and then bagging another against Brentford just a few days ago.

Nwaneri has been another surprise inclusion over the last two matches and boy has he delivered.

When Bukayo Saka’s hamstring injury was confirmed to be a lengthy one there were plenty of question marks surrounding that area of the pitch.

Gabriel Martinelli was tried down the right against Ipswich but that didn’t amount to much so Nwaneri came in to start on the right-hand side versus Brentford.

Arsenal immediately looked more fluid in attacking areas with the spritely teenager able to manoeuvre in 360 degrees with remarkable comfort and ease.

Well, Nwaneri made the biggest impact of all against Brighton on Saturday by scoring his second Premier League goal

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He raced onto the ball on the right-hand side, got away from the defence, into the penalty area and then buried an opportunity beyond Seagulls stopper Bart Verbruggen. It was a lovely goal and it was a moment that said to the rest of the Premier League that this boy is a special one.

Truth be told, it wasn’t the most complete of performances from the youngster who took a succession of poor corners and gave away the ball in tight spaces. That said, they needed a difference maker and without Odegaard or Saka on the pitch, he was it.

So, where did it go wrong and who were the worst performers on the away team?

Arsenal’s worst performers against Brighton

It’s fair to say this was not Arsenal’s day for a number of reasons.

Not only did the Brighton equaliser come about as a result of some bizarre officiating but they failed to create much in the second half either.

Whether the turning point was Martinelli being brought on for Nwaneri at the break is tricky to know but they lacked much fluidity after that moment with the likes of Jesus and former Brighton man Leandro Trossard isolated. As a result, they did not see much of the ball at all.

That said, it was in the deepest of midfield slots where the Gunners struggled the most.

With Odegaard only on the bench and Jurrien Timber suspended, it meant that Declan Rice was required further forward and Thomas Partey at right-back. As such, it was up to Jorginho to marshal the midfield in front of the backline.

Unfortunately, he didn’t do enough and was often overrun in midfield by the monstrous Carlos Baleba who seemed to have Jorginho’s number

The Italian is often a dependable figure, someone who evades the press well and breaks up play before passing the ball to more creative figures.

On this occasion, he wasn’t great at that. Jorginho was dribbled past twice and failed to make a single interception on the night. Unsurprisingly, he did little in the final third either, failing to have a shot and making just the one key pass.

That part of his play doesn’t matter hugely considering the role he was playing in but the very fact that Arteta chose to take him off after just 64 minutes having had fewer touches than goalkeeper David Raya (58) said a lot.

Handed a 5/10 match rating by Football.London’s Tom Canton, he wrote of the former Chelsea midfielder’s display that there were ‘a couple of errors in the first half that nearly proved very costly’.

That rather summed it up for the Gunners who were left to rue what might well be the final nail in the coffin for their title charge this term.

They are now five points behind Liverpool who play tomorrow but they could extend their lead to eight with a game in hand.

Arsenal have had injuries this season, they’ve had bad luck with penalty decisions and red card but the biggest problem of all is that they simply haven’t been good enough to string together a really promising sequence of wins.