Brighton’s ace Jack Hinshelwood takes the Internet by storm – Arsenal beats Brighton 2-0 at the Emirates
Arsenal v Brighton: Jack Hinshelwoods shin pads gain prominence as Arsenal retain their top spot in the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Brighton. The Gunners are still far from considering themselves in a healthy title race as they sit at a gap of just one point away from Liverpool and Aston Villa. With this win, however, Arteta’s men can take in a sigh of relief as they finally avenge the murder of their title hopes – for it was Brighton last season who spearheaded the Gunners in a 3-0 hammering at the Emirates. However, the one highlight from the match that seemed to gain the most attention was perhaps the youngster Jack Hinshelwood’s shin pads.
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Match Summary: Arsenal v Brighton
It wasn’t an entirely balanced game as it seemed to be more in the favor of the hosts – the scoreline seemingly concordant with this fact. Arsenal tallied a whooping 26 shots during the entire game with an xG of 2.34, having scored 2 goals. Despite having less of the ball at 49% possession, they managed to break through Brighton’s backline with little to no difficulties – 20 of their shots came from inside the box.
The visitors seemingly lacked that cutting edge when it came to finishing. Though they had much of the ball, they just didn’t know what to do with it, registering a total of just 3 shots – a poor evening for the Seagulls. It was clear who was dominant throughout and in absorbing this bitter reality, Brighton’s gaffer Roberto De Zerbi had the following to say:
“I’m disappointed with the result, but we deserved to lose, Arsenal played much better than us and deserved to win. We defended well and fought in a good way but to be honest they played much better.”
“We had the chance to score in the second half and maybe the result could have been different but we didn’t deserve to make a point,”
“We are not used to playing against this quality of opponent; we’re used to having more control, ball possession and chances to score. My players can play better but today was difficult.”
Jack Hinshelwoods shin pads: Smallest in Football?
The Young Englishman had all of the internet divided on whether these shin pads were the smallest. This incident came to being in the second half during a 1 on 1 challenge in which one of Hinshelwood’s shin pads popped out of his socks. The referee Tom Robinson was befuddled at the sight of it and without putting any more time to waste, he gave it to Pascal Groß – passing it onto the 18-year old who rakishly tucked it into his sock.
This led to a burst of banter and debate on social media with some hilariously claiming that he used his AirPods case as shin pads. While others showed serious concerns over the Youngster’s negligence of safety measures. However, he isn’t the pioneer of small shin pads as many players in the past have bossed around the pitch with pads just as controversially small as Hinshelwood’s.
Are Small Shin pads safe?
Surely this begs the question: Are shin pads that small even safe? As aforementioned, Jack Hinshelwood isn’t the trailblazer of the ‘micro shin pad movement’ – players such as Thomas Muller and Naby Keita have also worn them in the past, with Naby Keita’s pads coming under even more scrutiny in 2021.
All players are subjected to the enforcement of the game’s safety regulations so avoiding Shin pads at all is simply out of the question. Though they do not provide protection from all injuries, they still act as good shields against mechanical thrust onto the tibia. Hence why a brute tackle over that region can lead to complications. Though the 18-year-old wasn’t at the end of a rash Brexit tackle that arranged a funeral for his nascent career, granted that he plays in the Premier League at the highest level, who’s to say he’s safe from those tackles?
