3 -2 to the gunners overnight in the FA Cup.
First Half
The start to the game was fairly drab from both sides. I expected Brighton to start the game well, but they didn't seem too confident about taking the game to us and stood off us more than they should have. For us, I thought we started a bit sloppily, giving away the ball one too many times and didn't settle into any sort of rhythm.
Our first goal came on the counter attack. Rosicky took the ball down the right hand side, passed it across the box to Podolski who simply laid it off for Giroud to curl into the top corner from just outside the area. Easily the best goal he's scored as an Arsenal player this season.
Unfortunately, Arsenal didn't push on from there. Their build-up was often too slow and one too many players weren't involved enough or having off games; usually, the guys who hadn't played that much recently like Jenkinson, Diaby, Rosicky and Chamberlain.
One particular problem area was our left flank, manned by Andre Santos and Podolski. Santos looked completely lost no matter what he was doing. More often than not, he was disconnected from the rest of the back four and pressed and tracked the wrong man. Him and Podolski had zero understanding. Podolski also tracked the wrong man a couple of times while Santos made no effort to make overlapping runs.
Brighton quickly recognised this weakness and focused almost all their play down that side. They created a couple of decent chances by doing so and won a corner that lead to their first equaliser.
The defending for that corner was non-existent. As the ball comes in, six Arsenal players standing on the edge of the six yard box do nothing. Two Brighton players get in behind completely unchallenged. Szczesny comes and waits for the ball, rather than challenging for it. The result, inevitably, was that the Brighton player beat the keeper to the ball and they equalised.
Second Half
The second half wasn't much of an improvement from either side. Brighton weren't much of a threat and we still hadn't managed to put a decent passing move together.
We found a way a goal, though, eventually. Diaby clipped a long ball into the path of Giroud, who took it down excellently before finding the back of the net. Another high quality goal from him and his fourth this week.
But Arsenal being Arsenal let Brighton back into the game. They attacked down our left again and Andre Santos did absolutely nothing to prevent the cross. The cross ended up being a very good one and Ulloa, who Mertesacker should have been marking, scores a simple tap in.
Wenger responded by bringing on Wilshere and Walcott and our general play improved a bit. We had better control over the game in the last few minutes and managed to get the winner when Walcott's shot was deflected in.
Performance secondary to progression
Usually, I would be criticising the fact that our performance dropped from mid-week but with five key players rested it's not surprising we didn't play as well. Guys like Diaby and Rosicky are very rusty and need games, while Jenkinson and Chamberlain haven't played in a while. Santos is a bad player lacking fitness, so he was always going to be a disaster.
The defensive errors are nothing new, unfortunately, so I won't go on about them.
Ultimately, the most important thing was progressing to the next round. We managed to do so, albeit making harder work it than necessary, without the need of a replay. Nothing much to complain about, really.
