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Brighton & Hove Albion Women face Arsenal Women in the WSL at the Emirates Stadium |
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The Seagulls first trip to the Emirates with high hopes but moderate expectations. North London Forever and a rendition of the Last Post set the scene. Worst case scenario is 3rd place as the Gunners are 4 (yes, 4) point below.
Brighton look confident and have good possession but the defending is woeful. Arsenal are 3-0 up after 25 minutes with goals from Beth Mead (13), Caitlin Foord (22) and Frida Leonhardsen Maanum (25). Bugger. Efficient striking from the Gunners. Baggers makes a great save from Beth Mead deep into injury time. With the clock ticking down, the Gunners decide to take a short corner and the ref blows the half time whistle before the ball can go into the box. Much moaning at the ref on the pitch but lots of laughing in the away end🤣.
The second half starts with Dotti getting injured and being replaced by Rachel McLauchlan on 50. The are a few Gunners chances but the ball is kept out of the net. The Seagulls find the energy for a brief surge and Kiko gets a couple of good chances, forcing a good save and hitting the cross bar. Nearly. Lina Hurtig heads in a McCabe corner about a minute after coming on to replace Catlin Foord🙄. Dario finally makes his changes on 87 ⌚ and we see Masaka for the first time. Rosso gets round Caraballi then goes over in the box. Lessi just beats Baggers from the spot on 90+4. 5-0. Aisha Masaka starts to make an impact, threatening the Gunner goal. She is felled in the box and has to be stretchered off with gas and air and a shoulder injury. She isn't replaced and the last minute is played out 10 players.
The Gunners have found form at just the wrong moment for the Seagulls. They were outclassed all night. Not what we expected, although it was always on the cards. Great teams are still great teams even when they are playing badly. Still, we are a point above Arsenal in the table seven games into the season. Haha. Seagulls have a huge amount of credit in the bank so just have to put tonight behind them and think about West Ham on Saturday. A consolation goal would have been nice but there wasn't much of a goal threat tonight. It wouldn't have made much difference to the scoreline if they had Gunnersaurus in goal. Lots of lessons need to be learned and to work out what has changed since the Everton game but that's for tomorrow. Hope Masaka is OK and looking forward to seeing more of her playing in the near future. Time to leave North London (Not Forever, just until next time) and head back to Sussex By The Sea.
POTM: Not a great team performance but a couple of good sliding tackles from Jorelyn Carabali so she get the award again🏅.
Bottle top news: Normal service resumed and all bottle tops remained intact following the bag search.🍾
The stewarding was great and they had a good laugh at some of our songs.
Scran'o'meter learned from previous trips to the Emirates and took food from home so the concourse could be avoided. Special mention goes the Sweet Man at £1 a bag outside the stadium.
The ref was inconsistently inconsistent. Felt a bit like the hosts got the benefit of the doubt for every foul although off-side looked well officiated.
Love Tranmerekat 🐾
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| Clock End |
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| Seagulls at the Emirates |
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| Olislagers Corner |
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| Here again |
