Arsenal handed ideal lifeline after Thomas Partey disaster

Anyone would have thought Arsenal had just lost three games in a row, not their first Premier League fixture of 2022 to a team that wasn’t called either Liverpool or Manchester City.

The manner of the defeat contributed in raising the panic levels of the situation ahead of Brighton, as did the injury crisis that followed. One loss to a side who’ve been a bogey outfit for Arsenal – and aren’t too shabby themselves – is no cause for meltdown. It’s all the bells and whistles that come with it.

Mikel Arteta’s biggest task is preventing his side from magnifying the loss. Once it is allowed to seep into training sessions, planning and the confidence of the players there is a serious issue at hand.

Detaching from each game, win or lose, and resetting the focus is something the manager has projected in each of his interviews and press conferences, which also appears to have manifested in the players who’ve responded to defeats with victories no most occasions this season.

Arsenal handed an ideal opportunity for redemption against Brighton following devastating injuries to Thomas Partey and Kieran Tierney

Setbacks can only be responded with improvements in the next game. Sometimes it takes a week to be able to right wrongs while other times there are short turnover times, just as the calibre of opposition can make life easier or harder.

Looking up and down the Premier League table if Arsenal could cherry pick one game for them to elicit a response in then Brighton at home wouldn’t have been too far off the top of the list. It’s a fixture that has come around at just the right time.

With the walls closing in around them after the news of Tierney and Partey’s season-ending injuries – the latter isn’t confirmed but it may as well be – and three points dropped to the tune of a 3-0 defeat, Arsenal need to bounce back greater than ever.

It can sound defeatist but the season now hangs on a knife edge, if not worse. Having got themselves into a position where top four was, and still very much is, in their hands, losing it now would be a crushing disappointment, one that injuries to cornerstones of the team may, if anything, help temper expectations and prepare supporters for an eventuality that grows more likely.

Beating the Seagulls won’t save the season, nor will it bring the absent duo back, but it will bring a halt to the despondent mood shared among the fanbase. It can be a lifeline, however temporary.

The fight mustn’t be given up. As important and Tierney and Partey are, there are at least nine other footballers in the team who’ve battled tirelessly to get to this stage and played some excellent football en route.

Arsenal remain a strong unit, just a weakened one. Facing a Brighton side in dire straits who won’t sit back and frustrate, are leaking goals for fun and couldn’t hit a barn door with a banjo, this is the Gunners’ chance for redemption.

Kill the negative atmosphere and realign the course of the season. Events have taken place but no football matches have. Eyes are on Brighton and two summer signings with big boots to fill.