Ian Wright was left confused by two pieces of decision-making from Arsenal players in their 3-0 defeat to Brighton on Sunday, which has effectively ended their Premier League title challenge. The Gunners flopped to the heavy defeat at the Emirates with all three goals coming in the second half, with the first two directly related to strange decision-making. Brighton’s first was headed in by Julio Enciso after Arsenal defender Jakub Kiwior went down in the box, leaving the Paraguayan unmarked at point-blank range from goal. Replays showed Kiwior’s foot had been stepped on and his boot had come loose, but if he had simply stood still then Enciso would not have had a free header. Seconds after the match restarted Kiwior proved he was not injured by sprinting after the ball and Wright is not sure he’s ever seen a similar situation before. ‘I was thinking, “oh my gosh there’s something drastically wrong with him because he’s stopped, he’s gone down, so obviously he will not be able to play on,”‘ Wright told Premier League Productions. ‘I’ve never seen this before, with all due respect to him. Because if you’re bad you go off, but if you know you’re going to be able to play on…Yes he’s stepped on his foot there, his boot’s come off, I get that, but now you go, you mark and deal with it. ‘Let’s face it, he’s able to play on, so that foul cannot be bad enough for him to go on his knees and the guy have a free header. That was a goal that should not have happened.’
Brighton’s second was scored by Deniz Undav after substitute Leandro Trossard played a wayward pass in his own half and the ball fell to the German forward. Wright was again confused by the Arsenal man’s choice of how to play the ball, saying it was ‘almost flippant’ and questioned whether Trossard cared enough. ‘That is a difficult thing he’s trying, to play the ball round the corner into his teammate with the outside of his left foot,’ said Wright. ‘Trossard has to read the situation, he’s got enough space to turn to his right and maybe paly it to Kieran Tiernay. ‘That was somebody who’s come off the bench and I don’t know if he’s up to speed with the game or whether he cares enough at that particular moment, because the way he flicked his left foot out at that was not right at that stage of the game. ‘You can’t give the ball away, you can’t lose the ball. Especially in the manner he did it there, it’s almost flippant. You’re not getting away with that.’
Ian Wright was left confused by two pieces of decision-making from Arsenal players in their 3-0 defeat to Brighton on Sunday, which has effectively ended their Premier League title challenge. The Gunners flopped to the heavy defeat at the Emirates with all three goals coming in the second half, with the first two directly related to strange decision-making. Brighton’s first was headed in by Julio Enciso after Arsenal defender Jakub Kiwior went down in the box, leaving the Paraguayan unmarked at point-blank range from goal. Replays showed Kiwior’s foot had been stepped on and his boot had come loose, but if he had simply stood still then Enciso would not have had a free header. Seconds after the match restarted Kiwior proved he was not injured by sprinting after the ball and Wright is not sure he’s ever seen a similar situation before. ‘I was thinking, “oh my gosh there’s something drastically wrong with him because he’s stopped, he’s gone down, so obviously he will not be able to play on,”‘ Wright told Premier League Productions. ‘I’ve never seen this before, with all due respect to him. Because if you’re bad you go off, but if you know you’re going to be able to play on…Yes he’s stepped on his foot there, his boot’s come off, I get that, but now you go, you mark and deal with it. ‘Let’s face it, he’s able to play on, so that foul cannot be bad enough for him to go on his knees and the guy have a free header. That was a goal that should not have happened.’
Brighton’s second was scored by Deniz Undav after substitute Leandro Trossard