'Anxiety kicks in!' - Arsenal stars criticised by Ian Wright for 'basketball match' tendencies after scraping win against Brighton
Ian Wright has warned that Arsenal need to start taking their chances of else they run the risk of being leapfrogged by title rivals Manchester City and Aston Villa. The Gunners edged to a 2-1 win over Brighton on Saturday afternoon to return to the top of the Premier League table having briefly dropped to second following City's 2-1 victory at Nottingham Forest in the lunchtime kick-off.Gunners skipper Martin Odegaard had fired the north London side ahead in the 14th minute, and Mikel Arteta's men were two goals to the good shortly after the restart through a Georginio Rutter own goal. However, Arsenal failed to capitalise on their two-goal advantage as Diego Gomez struck for the third time this season midway through the second half to set up a tense finish in the capital.Victory over Brighton was Arsenal's third successive league win, though each of these victories in England's top tier have been by a single goal, relying on a late Yerson Mosquera own goal to secure all the spoils against Wolves, a first-half Viktor Gyokeres penalty in a narrow win at Everton last weekend and then a Rutter own goal on Saturday.And Wright has called on the club to start putting their chances away if they are to win a first Premier League title in over 20 years. Arsenal needed a late David Raya save to deny Yankuba Minteh to confirm the result late on as the former Gunners striker initially praised the Spanish shot-stopper before calling on Arteta's side to starting putting results beyond doubt.Speaking with Premier League Productions after Arsenal's win over Brighton, Wright initially lavished Raya, insisting that the Gunners number one "saved our blushes"."I think David Raya has probably saved our blushes with that amazing save," Wright said before going on to highlight Arsenal's lack of cutting edge as they seek to pip City and Villa to first."But it’s a problem we’ve got at the moment, for some reason, with the chances we’re making, we don’t seem to be able to take the chances to be comfortable in the game, then the anxiety kicks in and then it feels like a basketball match kind of energy," the 62-year-old continued."Gabriel Magalhaes coming back, hopefully that will settle us down with the familiarity with him and [William] Saliba. But in the main, we’ve won the game and hopefully we can settle down and start taking these chances because I don’t think we will be able to get away with that too often."And Wright's comments were echoed by Arteta, with the Gunners demanding his side be more clinical in front of goal.Looking for smarter football bets? Get expert previews, data-driven predictions & winning insights with GOAL Tips on Telegram. Join our growing community now!After the game on Saturday, Arteta said: "Very happy with the performance, individually and collectively, so dominant. We were a big threat, so very pleased with all of that. But the margins should have been much bigger. I mean, with the amount of situations, chances, open chances that we generated through the game, it should never be 2-1."But that’s the Premier League, that’s the step that we have to make. I think the first shot that they had, they scored the goal and then David has to make another save to maintain the result."Arteta, though, did explain how "proud" he is of the team as they put another huge three points on the board. "Overall, after playing every three days, the performance that the boys put in today, with all the difficult situations we're going through, again, especially in the backline, we lost Jurrien [Timber] yesterday, we lost [Riccardo] Calafiori today in the warm-up, the way the boys step up to the task," Arteta said."When Declan [Rice] is on as a right full-back, it's just unbelievable, and I'm so proud of them. [Declan at right-back] is a really good example to describe how I feel about the team and the spirit, and the willingness to win of this team."We're going to need everybody, some who are in a different position and to go through what we are going through in the manner that we are performing. It's great to witness."Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reportingArsenal play their final game of the year in midweek in a monster top-of-the-table clash with Aston Villa on Tuesday night. Villa, again, came from behind to claim victory over the weekend as a second half Ollie Watkins brace saw the Villans secure a 2-1 win at Chelsea on Saturday evening to go within three points of the league leaders.Victory means Villa have now won their last eight league matches, and 12 of their last 13, with the only blip in that run a 2-0 loss at defending Premier League champions Liverpool. City, meanwhile, travel to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland on New Year's Day as the Cityzens seek to ring in 2026 with a seventh successive league triumph.
Ian Wright has warned that Arsenal need to start taking their chances of else they run the risk of being leapfrogged by title rivals Manchester City and Aston Villa. The Gunners edged to a 2-1 win over Brighton on Saturday afternoon to return to the top of the Premier League table having briefly dropped to second following City's 2-1 victory at Nottingham Forest in the lunchtime kick-off.Gunners skipper Martin Odegaard had fired the north London side ahead in the 14th minute, and Mikel Arteta's men were two goals to the good shortly after the restart through a Georginio Rutter own goal. However, Arsenal failed to capitalise on their two-goal advantage as Diego Gomez struck for the third time this season midway through the second half to set up a tense finish in the capital.Victory over Brighton was Arsenal's third successive league win, though each of these victories in England's top tier have been by a single goal, relying on a late Yerson Mosquera own goal to secure all the spoils against Wolves, a first-half Viktor Gyokeres penalty in a narrow win at Everton last weekend and then a Rutter own goal on Saturday.And Wright has called on the club to start putting their chances away if they are to win a first Premier League title in over 20 years. Arsenal needed a late David Raya save to deny Yankuba Minteh to confirm the result late on as the former Gunners striker initially praised the Spanish shot-stopper before calling on Arteta's side to starting putting results beyond doubt.Speaking with Premier League Productions after Arsenal's win over Brighton, Wright initially lavished Raya, insisting that the Gunners number one "saved our blushes"."I think David Raya has probably saved our blushes with that amazing save," Wright said before going on to highlight Arsenal's lack of cutting edge as they seek to pip City and Villa to first."But it’s a problem we’ve got at the moment, for some reason, with the chances we’re making, we don’t seem to be able to take the chances to be comfortable in the game, then the anxiety kicks in and then it feels like a basketball match kind of energy," the 62-year-old continued."Gabriel Magalhaes coming back, hopefully that will settle us down with the familiarity with him and [William] Saliba. But in the main, we’ve won the game and hopefully we can settle down and start taking these chances because I don’t think we will be able to get away with that too often."And Wright's comments were echoed by Arteta, with the Gunners demanding his side be more clinical in front of goal.Looking for smarter football bets? Get expert previews, data-driven predictions & winning insights with GOAL Tips on Telegram. Join our growing community now!After the game on Saturday, Arteta said: "Very happy with the performance, individually and collectively, so dominant. We were a big threat, so very pleased with all of that. But the margins should have been much bigger. I mean, with the amount of situations, chances, open chances that we generated through the game, it should never be 2-1."But that’s the Premier League, that’s the step that we have to make. I think the first shot that they had, they scored the goal and then David has to make another save to maintain the result."Arteta, though, did explain how "proud" he is of the team as they put another huge three points on the board. "Overall, after playing every three days, the performance that the boys put in today, with all the difficult situations we're going through, again, especially in the backline, we lost Jurrien [Timber] yesterday, we lost [Riccardo] Calafiori today in the warm-up, the way the boys step up to the task," Arteta said."When Declan [Rice] is on as a right full-back, it's just unbelievable, and I'm so proud of them. [Declan at right-back] is a really good example to describe how I feel about the team and the spirit, and the willingness to win of this team."We're going to need everybody, some who are in a different position and to go through what we are going through in the manner that we are performing. It's great to witness."Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reportingArsenal play their final game of the year in midweek in a monster top-of-the-table clash with Aston Villa on Tuesday night. Villa, again, came from behind to claim victory over the weekend as a second half Ollie Watkins brace saw the Villans secure a 2-1 win at Chelsea on Saturday evening to go within three points of the league leaders.Victory means Villa have now won their last eight league matches, and 12 of their last 13, with the only blip in that run a 2-0 loss at defending Premier League champions Liverpool. City, meanwhile, travel to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland on New Year's Day as the Cityzens seek to ring in 2026 with a seventh successive league triumph.
