Arsenal beat Brighton 2–0 at the Emirates, and eventually, it was the kind of calm, confident performance that makes you start Googling “how to emotionally prepare for a possible title run.”
Goals? Delicious. Possession? Dominant. Brighton? To the most part, harmless. But let’s address the glaring issue: no set-piece goals. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Has Nicolas Jover gone on holiday?
(Getty Images)
For months, Arsenal have been turning corners into weapons of mass disruption. You could practically feel the fear ripple through defences every time Rice trotted over to take one. Now? It’s like we’ve entered the Witness Protection Program for dead-ball efficiency.
Corner after corner went begging — one straight into Steele’s hands, another that somehow turned into a Brighton counterattack, and one that may still be orbiting above north London as we speak. Mosquera looked ready to file a missing persons report for his header.
Meanwhile, our goals actually came from — brace yourselves — open play.
- Nwaneri with an Henryesque finish after Merino’s sublime back heal, and
- Bukayo Saka, following up Harriman-Annous’s rebound, finished with the anger of a man who’s clearly sick of being kicked by full-backs.
Still, as an Arsenal fan, it’s hard to complain. Brighton are one of those teams that usually turn up and make us work for every inch, but this time they were politely compliant. The Emirates crowd even had time to chant, clap, and collectively manifest a third goal, cruelly denied to Trossard by the upright.
But I miss the chaos of the set piece era. The far post corners. The crowd gasps. The inevitable header from Gabriel that makes you spill your pint. Bring it back, Jover. We need the serotonin.
So yes, Arsenal win again, 2–0, clean sheet, top performance… but if the next game doesn’t feature a header from a corner, I might start a petition titled:
“Reinstate the Cult of the Set Piece.”
Because as good as we were today — and we were very good — it’s just not an Arsenal masterclass without a little bit of Jover-induced madness in the box.
3 days later and Jover’s mid season sabbatical was obviously over.
At 3.15pm, normal service was resumed:
Declan Rice corner ->
Gabriel at the back post ->
Gyokeres headers the opener.
#JoverBall
English by birth, Australian by choice. Traffic Engineer, Arsenal ST Holder, Sun DreamTeam Winner, Writer on @GunnersTown, Depeche Mode, Welcome to my world…
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