da dobrowin： Arsenal’s hopes of clinching a historic Premier League title from Manchester City’s grasp were unofficially dead and buried as they were beaten 3-0 by high-flying Brighton and Hove Albion at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
da winzada777： Defeat for Mikel Arteta’s side means that the defending champions can secure a third straight triumph against Chelsea next weekend, regardless of the Gunners’ result against Nottingham Forest.
The Gunners can somewhat feel hard done by with a poor standard of inconsistent officiating resulting in some moments of misfortune, notably an incident that saw Gabriel Martinelli withdrawn early in the first half after Moises Caicedo escaped a booking for a disappointing lunge from behind.
However, it’s not as if the Spaniard’s chosen XI was at the races either because several of his key stars let him down, including central defender Jakub Kiwior, who went down injured instead of standing his ground until the whistle for the Seagulls’ first effort – a header from 5 foot 6 dynamo Julio Enciso.
The Brazilian’s replacement, Leandro Trossard, then squandered possession in no man’s land to gift a late second to fellow substitute Denis Undav before Pervis Estupinan slotted home a third in added time to compound a disastrous outing from the Gunners.
They weren’t the only ones though…
How did Ben White do against Brighton?
It was a tough outing from Ben White at right-back too as he was regularly torched by Brighton’s tricky wide man Kaoru Mitoma. The Japanese speedster skinned the Englishman to provide the initial ball into the box for the visitors’ opening goal.
Indeed, the neat footwork and acceleration of the 25-year-old saw him register two successful dribbles, having also won five duels up against White, who himself was graded as the Gunners’ third-worst player, per Sofascore ratings (6.4).
To make matters worse, GOAL journalist Charles Watts tweeted about the £50m defender’s woes.
He said: “Ben White is going to be having nightmares about Mitoma later.”
Similarly, these were sentiments echoed by The Evening Standard’s Simon Collings, who wrote in his post-match ratings column: ‘It is not often you see the right-back struggle like this, but Karou Mitoma gave him a torrid time, skinning him on more than one occasion.’
White was dribbled past on two occasions, whilst he lost four duels, including 100% in the air, which certainly suggests that Mitoma regularly got the better of him throughout the encounter.
The £120k-per-week star also struggled on the ball, having failed to find an Arsenal player with his two inaccurate crosses and from 49 touches, he lost the ball on seven occasions, via Sofascore.
Having accrued the fifth-most minutes of any other player before kick-off, White has often been a player that Arteta has trusted and relied upon but up against a tricky opponent in Mitoma, he was woefully exposed at right-back, so perhaps it gives the Spaniard some food for thought now second place is all but rubber-stamped.
Once questioned for being a “liability” to this side at the start of the season, it seems as if such a statement has come true at the worst possible time as City are now very likely to be crowned champions once more, leaving White and co with those aforementioned nightmares for weeks to come.