Brighton 2-1 Arsenal: Neal Maupay boosts Premier League survival hopes with injury-time winner

The French forward was blamed by Arsenal players for a serious injury to goalkeeper Bernd Leno in the first half before he stole all three points in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

Substitute Alexis McAllister made an immediate impact by playing a part in the build-up to the goal, which sealed Graham Potter's side's first Premier League win of 2020.

There was unsavoury scenes at full-time as players clashed, Maupay in the thick of it. He apologised to Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta at half-time after Leno’s injury and said sorry again following the full-time whistle.

“At half-time I went to Arteta to apologise because I never meant to injure their keeper,” he revealed to BT Sport.

“I just jumped to get the ball maybe and I think he twisted his knee, I never meant to hurt him.

“I am really sorry. I apologise again and I wish him a speedy recovery.”

Arteta's Gunners, who have lost three first-team players to injury since the league's restart, have now been beaten in back-to-back games in the space of four days.

The visitors went in front after 68 minutes, when Nicolas Pepe cut onto his left foot on the right-hand side of the penalty area and curled a wonderful effort beyond Ryan.

Brighton were level seven minutes later, however, when Lewis Dunk poked the ball over the line from close range after a short corner routine caused problems for the Arsenal defence, with goal-line technology confirming the effort went in.

With the match heading for a draw, a quick move by Brighton saw Maupay peel off his defender to latch onto Aaron Connolly's ball and coolly finish past substitute goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.

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REACTION

Maupay also hit out at the behaviour of some of the Gunners’ players.

“Arsenal players need to learn humility, maybe sometimes. They have been talking a lot first half, second half when they were 1-0 up. They got what they deserved,” he added.

However, after a first victory since late December the Frenchman could not hide his delight at the late winner.

“I am so happy because it is our first win in this year. We worked so hard after three months,” he said.

“It has been a crazy time, it has been really hard for us as we didn’t know when we were going to play again.

“We kept together, believing in each other, and the whole club, the manager and staff tried very hard to put us in our best place.”

GOALS

Opta stats

• Brighton picked up their first league victory of 2020 (the last Premier League side to do so), while this was also the first time they’ve done the league double against Arsenal.
• At 94 minutes and 26 seconds, Neal Maupay’s winner was the latest Premier League goal Brighton have ever scored, while it was also the latest winning goal scored against Arsenal in the competition since exact goal-time data is available (2006-07).
• Brighton picked up their 100th victory in all competitions at the Amex Stadium since moving to the ground in 2011.
• Excluding penalties, only Aston Villa (15) have conceded more goals from set-piece situations than Arsenal this season (13), with Brighton’s leveller today coming from a corner.
• 18-year-old Bukayo Saka has provided 11 assists in all competitions this season, at least three more than any other Arsenal player.

• Nicolas Pépé’s opener was his seventh goal in all competitions for Arsenal, but his first scored outside of London.
• Lewis Dunk scored his sixth Premier League goal for Brighton, with Arsenal the only team he’s scored more than once against (2). Brighton have lost four of the six Premier League games in which Dunk has scored, with the exceptions being in those games against Arsenal (2-1 in 2017-18, 2-1 today).
• Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had seven shots against Brighton, the highest number of shots he’s had in a single match for the Gunners without scoring (all competitions).

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