Hürzeler “disappointed” Brighton Held Arsenal to 1-1 Draw

Brighton manager, Fabian Hürzeler is “disappointed” his team drew 1-1 against Arsenal. 

Joao Pedro’s “clear penalty” in Hürzeler’s opinion cancelled out Ethan Nwaneri’s first-half goal as Brighton held Arsenal to another draw, just like they had in North London earlier this season.

Hürzeler consequently felt that his Seagulls “didn’t start intensely enough…” but praised the players for their response to falling behind by improving their performance, although he is “disappointed” to had not won.

“It changed after their goal and in the second half we created chances, played with intensity and were dominant.

“In general, we had the bigger chances and we’re disappointed not to leave the pitch as the winner.

“We lost too many personal duels in the first half so in the second half we made changes and went more vertical, the players who came in did well but the players already on the pitch changed their mentality.”

Brighton though are now winless in their last eight matches and Hürzeler feels that more consistency is required to return to winning ways, from playing “… better physically and mentally, to start differently and play a game the way we want to play with intensity for 90 minutes.”

Kaoru Mitoma made a second-half substitute appearance which Hürzeler explained was due to fatigue.

“He has played a lot of games in the first half of the season and for Japan, with a lot of travelling,” said Hürzeler who iterated that the Japanese winger is in contention to start upcoming games.

“He felt a bit tired but he always has a big impact when he comes into the game and I’m sure he will be back as a starter soon.

“It is good to have competition and for every player to recognise that you have to do well in games and training to deserve to play.”