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2022/23 English Premier League
Matchday 36
Arsenal v Brighton & Hove Albion
Emirates Stadium
London, England
Sunday, 14 May 2023
Kick-off is at 15h30
Arsenal will look to stay in touch with the
Premier League leaders when they welcome Brighton to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, May 14.
The Gunners have got their title challenge back on track after winning just one of their five games in April to open the door for City to retain the league crown.
Mikel Arteta's side halted a four-match winless run when they beat Chelsea 3-1 at home on May 2 and followed it up with a 2-0 victory over Newcastle at St James' Park last Sunday.
They remain a point behind the Citizens, who have a game in hand and made it 10 wins on the spin with a 2-1 triumph against Leeds at the Etihad Stadium last Saturday.
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The Seagulls will be smarting after suffering their biggest defeat of the season at the hands of Everton, who ran out 5-1 victors at the Amex on Monday.
The result was especially disappointing for Roberto De Zerbi after seeing his team record back-to-back home wins against Wolves and Manchester United prior to that.
However, Albion (7th) still have an outside chance of finishing in the top four as they trail United (4th) by eight points with a game in hand, having played two less than Liverpool (5th) and Tottenham (6th).
Gabriel Martinelli impressed against the Magpies, causing them all sorts on problems down the left flank. The Brazilian winger almost set up Martin Odegaard for his second goal with a nice cutback in the first half and then struck the crossbar in the second half before seeing his low cross inadvertently turned home by Fabian Schar on 71 minutes.
Alexis Mac Allister is enjoying a fine season at the Amex and has really kicked on since winning the 2022 World Cup with Argentina in December. The Argentine midfielder scored a dramatic late winner from the penalty spot against the Red Devils before bagging a consolation goal in the Toffees' rout to take his tally for the campaign to double figures.
In team news, the hosts remain without long-term absentees Takehiro Tomiyasu, Mohamed Elneny (both knee) and William Saliba (back), while Adam Lallana, Joel Veltman, Solly March (all thigh), Jakub Moder, Tariq Lamptey (both knee), Jeremy Sarmiento (ankle) and Enock Mwepu (chest) all miss the trip to the capital.
Arteta has challenged his players to keep putting pressure on City after being impressed with their fighting spirit on Tyneside.
"We are there, we want to keep digging. The prize is there, not too far and the only thing we can do is keep insisting and don't turn our backs and lose focus on something else. Be determined every single day, let's keep going and see what happens," the Spaniard said.
"It (our fighting spirit) proves that we've done it today, now we have to prove that we are able to do it against Brighton. It's going to be a completely different game, really demanding, and we're going to have to be at our best to beat them again.
"We've done it for 10 and a half months I think, we have to keep doing it, we are there. It feels very different to 10 days ago, we have to make sure that the momentum is there."
De Zerbi described the performance against Everton as a bad day at the office and has urged his players to use the heavy defeat as motivation for the final three games of the season.
"It's very difficult to explain this performance,” the Italian said. "It was a very strange game. We conceded after 30 seconds. This wasn't the Brighton team. It's a bad day, we have to restart on Sunday against Arsenal.
"The problem was not about our tactical approach - I think we didn't prepare in terms of motivation and mentality maybe. We're playing a lot of games in a small period which we're not used to. We have to work on this and I can understand.
"We have to remember this game because it can be a very important day for us if we improve in mentality. We have to be ready to play one game every three or four days if we want to fight for our big target.
"Before this game, we were playing fantastic football, with fantastic results. We have to be proud of our results."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings)
Matches - 5
Arsenal - 3
Brighton - 1
Draws - 1
Matchday 36 fixtures:
Saturday, May 13
13h30: Leeds United v Newcastle United
16h00: Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur
16h00: Chelsea v Nottingham Forest
16h00: Crystal Palace v Bournemouth
16h00: Manchester United v Wolverhampton Wanderers
16h00: Southampton v Fulham
Sunday, May 14
15h00: Brentford v West Ham United
15h00: Everton v Manchester City
17h30: Arsenal v Brighton & Hove Albion
Monday, May 15
21h00: Leicester City v Liverpool
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