Brighton 1 Arsenal 1: Gunners suffer major blow in Premier League title race after William Saliba gives away penalty
ARSENAL dropped two crucial points after a clash of heads saw Brighton earn a second-half penalty.
The Gunners looked to be cruising to fifth consecutive win, but saw it all unfold when William Saliba mistimed a header in his own box.
Joao Pedro bagged a penalty to share the spoils on the south coast[/caption]
Ethan Nwaneri was the bright spark for Arsenal as the teenager bagged the Gunners’ opener.[/caption]
The towering centre-back was trying to flick away a loose ball being chased down by Joao Pedro when he butted into Pedro’s head instead, bringing the Brazilian crashing to the floor and causing Anthony Taylor to point to the spot.
Pedro confidently slotted the penalty past David Raya after VAR deemed the clumsy clash of heads to be a spot kick too.
Arsenal were short of options from that point on with Bukayo Saka still out injured, Kai Havertz out of the squad and first-half goalscorer Ethan Nwaneri hooked at half-time.
Mikel Arteta might think he made the wrong decision to take off the talented 17-year-old, who had calmly put the Gunners ahead in the first half with a impressive finish past Bart Verbruggen.
But a yellow card for time wasting on a corner clearly had Arteta worried he could be reduced to 10 men and the Spaniard chose to remove the teenager at the break.
That meant that Arsenal were light on attacking options after Pedro’s equaliser, forcing Arteta into bringing on a half-fit Martin Odegaard in the hopes of some late magic.
That never happened and Arsenal failed to put pressure on league leaders Liverpool.
The Gunners remain in second place, but are now five points behind The Reds having played two more games than Arne Slot’s men – it’s a huge mountain to climb for a Saka-less Arsenal.
William Saliba mistimed his header and clashed heads with Joao Pedro in the box[/caption]
VAR deemed the clash of heads to be a penalty[/caption]
Pedro confidently dispatched the spot-kick[/caption]
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