Brighton Fan View: Points needed against top-six sides

After one of our best wins of the season, Brighton have got to turn the screw on the troubled Arsene Wenger and claim an even better result.

Last week’s 4-1 victory at home to Swansea was a fabulous result against a side who had been in great form. More significantly, it took us past the 30-point margin (up to 31 in fact) and the prospect of securing a second season of Premier League football is looking better.

That is six games unbeaten in all competitions, four in the league, and while I always hoped we would avoid relegation straight back to the Championship, I never thought we would be in this position with 10 games to go.

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That said, the job is far from done, especially as our remaining fixtures include matches against Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Everton to name a few. And Arsenal, of course, this Sunday.

The one thing that has eluded Brighton so far this season has been any kind of positive result against a top-six side. Let’s be frank, we haven’t picked up a single point and have not looked like doing so. That will have to change if we are to stay up and what better an opportunity than Sunday.

As a lifelong Brighton fan, I will admit to having a soft spot for Arsenal. There are particular reasons for that, which I won’t go into, but I have always looked out for their results and have loved the brand of football they have played at times. With that in mind, the Carabao Cup final last week was difficult to watch and, harsh as they sounded on television, Gary Neville’s comments on the spirit, heart and work-rate of the Arsenal players were absolutely correct.

These are difficult times for the Gunners, who have not helped Brighton’s survival cause with defeats to Swansea and Bournemouth since the turn of the year, and were well beaten again by Manchester City on Thursday evening. The truth is, you have not got a clue which Arsenal team will turn up – the one that will brush you aside with some sparkling football or the one that looked disinterested and without leadership, which we saw both in the cup final and against Ostersunds a few days before? I felt Jack Wilshire’s post-cup final moan about all the decisions going against the Gunners only served to highlight further the problems within their squad at the moment, because it was not anything to do with the referee that they lost.

Obviously, Arsenal will see Brighton as an opportunity to get back on track, but for Brighton this is a real chance to pull off a result which could prove huge in the context of our season. Simply, Brighton’s players have to seize the moment with a huge performance. We have to prey on Arsenal’s current weaknesses and pull off a shock.

Confidence could not be higher for Brighton at present. We have scored three or more goals in our last three home games, Glenn Murray is on fire, Jose Izquierdo is proving to be a real game-changer, Pascal Gross continues to be a vastly underrated gem, Davy Propper is shining in midfield and defensively we are looking tighter again. Oh, and don’t forget our new record-signing striker Jurgen Locadia has two goals in two appearances.

Twice in recent seasons Brighton have given Arsenal a bit of a fright in FA Cup games at the Amex (2013 and 2015). Now let’s try to go one better and pull off what would be possibly the result of the season for us.

@GriggoHome