The Gunners went into this weekend’s fixture on the back of three straight wins in the Premier League which appeared to have revived their slender hopes of beating leaders Liverpool to the Premier League title.
However, Arsenal produced a frustrating display despite going 1-0 up early in the game, as they settled for a draw which might do the final damage to their slim title chances.
Mikel Arteta named a starting eleven without captain Martin Odegaard on Saturday while Kai Havertz was completely left out of the squad, even though the Arsenal boss had stated on Wednesday that the German was expected to recover for the Brighton trip.
According to the Gunners’ manager, Odegaard and Havertz have continued to struggle with an illness that has hit the squad and the duo went into Saturday’s game without much energy to give.
“Kai tried but he really was very honest and said: ‘I can’t even train, I’m not feeling good at all’. We tried yesterday to see if he could train and he tried his best but he wasn’t able to do that. ” Arteta said after Saturday’s match
“Martin [Odegaard] didn’t train and said ‘I will see how I feel tomorrow’ and he did his best to be here because we know the numbers that we have.”
Odegaard was able to come off the bench to play a part in the game but the second half cameo was certainly not one to remember from the Norwegian midfielder.
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