Prediction & odds for the game: Arsenal (4/7) v Brighton (9/2)
When: Thursday, 5th December 2019 @ 8.15pm K.O
Where: Emirates Stadium
Arsenal will host Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League this week as Freddie Ljungberg aims for his first win as caretaker manager.
Arsenal
The departure of Unai Emery has opened the door for a series of fascinating possibilities at the Emirates, but for now, all fans can do is sit back and wait to see what sort of a shift Freddie Ljungberg is able to put in before a permanent manager is appointed. They’ve got some serious deficiencies from a defensive point of view and that much is obvious, but if they can keep Lacazette and Aubameyang firing, then they’re always in with a shout of having a strong season in the Premier League and beyond.
Arsenal’s last six makes for some diabolical reading, even for the most optimistic of Arsenal supporters. Across their last six game stretch they’ve really struggled to get anything going, with draws over Norwich, Southampton, Vitoria SC and Wolves actually serving as the highlights if you can believe it. Their losses, on the other hand, came against Eintracht Frankfurt and Leicester.
Brighton
Under Graham Potter we’ve seen a hot and cold Brighton & Hove Albion side. There are some positives and there are certainly some negatives, but the good news is that their bouncebackability (if there is such a thing) is usually fairly strong. They come to fight and that’s certainly what they’ll need to do against an Arsenal side that quite clearly have far more quality within their ranks than they do. If they can turn it into a bit of a war, they’ll be in with a shot of causing the upset.
Brighton’s two wins over Everton and Norwich were strong, but they’ve faced some tough opposition aside from that. They were beaten by Aston Villa in a back and forth game, they went down to Manchester United at Old Trafford, and title contenders Liverpool & Leicester both put them to the sword – eventually.
Conclusion
Arsenal are desperate for a win and it certainly seems as if they’ll do just about anything within their power to acquire it, but even with that being the case, we just cannot picture a scenario in which they’re able to get one over on Brighton here. That sounds ridiculous considering they’re at home, but they’re so fragile right now – whereas the Seagulls don’t really have all too much to lose. We can picture them coming away from North London with a hard earned draw, giving their push against the relegation battle a big boost.
We think it’ll be scrappy without all too many attempts on goal from either side, and while that won’t make for much of a spectacle, it will certainly help those betting on the under 2.5 goals market.
Verdict: Back the draw at odds of 10/3 and the under 2.5 goals scored at odds of 6/4. (All odds are taken from bet365).
[geosnippet id=3620]Feel free to bet on the Arsenal v Brighton game over on the betting page, or check out all of the other games in the week ahead on the soccer predictions page.
