Before this past weekend, Arsenal had not lost in the Premier League since April. Nine straight league wins had been enough to crown the Gunners as champions at the end of last season and firmly establish them as the team to beat early this season.
Against Brighton on Saturday, though, the team to beat were beaten. Thoroughly.
Arsenal weren’t just pecked by the Seagulls. They were pressed to death by them. Usually so resilient, even in the face of such opposition exuberance, the Premier League champions fell apart on the south coast, losing a match by three goals for the first time in over three years. It was jarring to see Arsenal so out of sorts.
Was this simply a Control-Alt-Delete game for Arsenal, or has the manner of the Seagulls’ performance provided a template for others to use? Was Saturday merely a blip that the Gunners will quickly recover from or the first crack in their previously impenetrable armour? Let’s tackle those and some other questions from the Premier League’s big upset before the international break.
How did Brighton do it?
The most effective element of Brighton’s performance was their relentless pressing of Arsenal in periods of settled possession. While the Seagulls still had pressing triggers which prompted them to push high up the pitch at certain moments, Fabian Hürzeler also recognised the need to prevent the champions from getting to the edge of the box. They were in Arsenal’s faces for most of the match.
Brighton defensive midfielder Chema Andrés pushed up on to Martin Ødegaard whenever he could, moving Brighton into a man-to-man shape against the ball and limiting the Norwegian whenever he dropped deep. Faced with a four-on-four situation in build-out, Arsenal simply weren’t sharp enough on the ball to get around the press, forcing David Raya to go long more times than he would have liked. From there, Brighton could turn the ball over and attack at speed in the other direction.
This made the match a transition-heavy affair which suited Brighton’s attacking players. Focal point Charalampos Kostoulas was an all-round threat while Pascal Gross, Maxim De Cuyper and Diego Gómez were impactful in open space. Hürzeler’s approach never allowed the game state to shift in Arsenal’s favour. He covered all bases.
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Is Brighton’s formula replicable?
Maybe, but it will be tough. Hürzeler’s team are a physical force of nature. Of the four players that covered the most distance on Saturday, three were Brighton players and it’s these legs and lungs that allows them to press so hard for so long. No Premier League team is averaging more high turnovers per 90 minutes this season. Not every team can do what Brighton do.
For all that Brighton’s approach as a team, and a club, epitomises the modern game, there was an old school quality to the way they disrupted Arsenal. “We wanted to win the small battles first,” explained Hürzeler on talkSport, revealing the instructions he gave his players. “Win the first header, win the first tackle, win the first throw-in, win the first corner.”
Should Arsenal fans be worried?
Probably not, since there were some mitigating factors that explain Arsenal’s underperformance. The trip to Brighton was their fourth away game in just 10 days, and their general lethargy reflected this. Furthermore, many of Arsenal’s best players, including Martin Ødegaard, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, were denied a pre-season due to their extended involvement at the World Cup.
Two of Brighton’s three goals came from low-xG shots from outside the box. Arsenal were guilty of not closing the space for the shooter quickly enough, but on another day Gross and Kostoulas would have shot over the bar rather than into the top corner. Indeed, Brighton’s three goals came from a total xG of just 1.31, less than Arsenal’s xG of 1.63.
Arsenal are also still without the injured William Saliba whose presence next to Gabriel Magalhaes surely would have steadied their defensive line. Without Ben White in the lineup, the Gunners additionally lacked the chemistry down the right wing that has been such a feature of their early-season success. Saka was a non-factor in the game.
Many predicted Arsenal would stroll this season’s title race. They still might. While Manchester City are now top of the table, Arsenal are two points better off now than they were at the same stage of last season when they went on to win the title for the first time since the Arsène Wenger era. Until Saturday, they had won seven out of seven in all competitions this season. Mikel Arteta need not panic.
You can bet, however, that the tactical analysts and data crunchers employed by Arsenal’s rivals will have closely watched Brighton’s 3-0 win more than a few times by the time club soccer resumes next month.
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