The FA Cup produced another boisterous, thrilling, ultimately quite frantic fourth round tie at the Amex Stadium where Arsenal managed to look both supremely well-tuned in attack and familiarly fragile at the back in a thrilling 3-2 defeat of Brighton and Hove Albion. Twice Brighton surged back from two goals down to push the Cup holders all the way in a match that looked at the end of the first half like confirmation of Mesut Özil and Theo Walcott’s return to starting health; but which by the end had provided further evidence of the ability of Football League clubs to compete in this competition with the elite. With four minutes left Brighton might even have had a penalty to level the scores as the ball was struck against Calum Chambers’ hand from two meters away inside the area, but Michael Oliver was merciful to the Premier League team.
The Amex is a wonderful, groovily cantilevered model of a new-build stadium, all swooping lightweight curves beneath a noise-funnel corrugated roof. Brighton’s season has been resuscitated by a surge of four wins in five since Boxing Day for a team that has suddenly discovered the art of the clean sheet and before kick off it always seemed likely Brighton would opt for constriction rather than cavalier attack.
Continue reading...
from Football | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1L8xKCP
0 Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen