Arsenal endured an afternoon to forget on the south coast as Brighton produced a dominant performance to beat Mikel Arteta’s side 3-0 at the Amex.
It was a desperately poor display from the Gunners, who struggled to impose themselves from the opening stages and never really recovered once Brighton took control.
Brighton punish Arsenal in a brutal first half
The opening exchanges were frantic and end-to-end, but Brighton increasingly began finding spaces in Arsenal’s defence.
The breakthrough arrived after 31 minutes when Pascal Gross put Brighton 1-0 ahead, and Arsenal were fortunate not to fall further behind before the interval.
Bukayo Saka did have an opportunity in the 45th minute, but his effort went straight at Verbruggen. Brighton immediately went up the other end and Kostoulas scored to make it 2-0.
That summed up Arsenal’s first half. Brighton looked quicker, sharper and far more dangerous, while the Gunners offered very little going forward.
Remarkably, Arsenal did not win their first corner until the 48th minute.
Arsenal changes fail to spark a comeback
Arteta kept the same personnel for the start of the second half, although Arsenal initially looked slightly more aggressive.
Any hope of a comeback soon disappeared.
A Kai Havertz error, playing out from the back, almost gifted Brighton another opening before he tracked back and cleared it for a corner in the 56th minute. Brighton scored again to make it 3-0.
At that stage, this was threatening to become a complete humiliation.
Arteta responded on the hour, introducing Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi, with further changes arriving as Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres replaced Martin Odegaard and Christos Tzolis in the 73rd minute.
But Brighton remained capable of adding further punishment. Struijk headed narrowly wide from a corner and David Raya was required to make saves from Matt O’Reilly late on.
Max Dowman replaced Saka after 81 minutes as Arsenal searched desperately for something positive. Riccardo Calafiori flashed an excellent ball across the face of goal in the 84th minute, but nobody pounced on it.
Zubimendi headed wide deep into stoppage time before Declan Rice picked up a yellow card in the 96th minute as the final whistle confirmed a miserable 3-0 defeat.
There is no dressing this one up. Brighton thoroughly deserved their victory and Arsenal were comfortably second best for long periods. After the standards this team has set. Arteta will surely demand a major response. But we’ll have to wait for that as the players head off to their respective national teams for an extended 3 week international break.
What went wrong for Arsenal today, Gooners? Was it the selection, the tactics, a terrible collective performance or that our opponent was far superior? Let us know in the comments.
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So if Sunderland batter Man City tomorrow then we go back top 🤣
Thats one way of looking at it.
Lol
Losing like this once in 3 or more years isn’t bad. We go again
Gabriel was the man of the match… Guimares let the team down with his constant bombing forward leaving rice to be fried in Brighton frying pan 🤣🤣🤣.. why did arteta drop skelly? That singular decision ruined the defensive structure of arsenal.. was so astonished to see guimares going so far forward to press like odegard leaving so much space for pascal gross to exploit.. arteta knew he made the wrong call but his ego didn’t make him restore skelly back only to bring on the infuriating zubi who kept losing the ball.. less I say about saka and hervetz ( who missed a 1 v 1 again) the better.. I think gyokores is not elite material. He needs to go back to Portugal.. arsenal should have gone for osimen.. this games would have been controlled and won in the first 30 mins by arsenal if the midfield had kept their shape.. guimares was a loose can
100% agree on Skelly. It was obvious early on he was going to be missed
Absolutely, arteta team selection is sometimes bad. Benching MLS now again.. ? without that much reason…. And zero change at half time while being 2-0 down ? Maybe three changes in the middlle of the park at half time would have given something early on. Anyway, maybe a good thing to be battered like this that early in the season. It will maybe help.
Guimarez was hopeless. And his passing, shocking!!!!
Reggie,
Agree. Can the two gel? Rice and him?
I hope so but Guimarez looks unfit.
And lets not forget MLS. He has proved himself.
We have not improved our attack from last season and it was the weakest link in the team. And Arteta did the usual – buy more midfielders and defenders. The LW is as bad as the last 3years if not worse. We have one of the slowest forward line in years. Instead of getting RW that would compete with Saka, we ended up with another Chelsea reject and now since Saka is out of form, the RW is as bad as LW. Havertz can’t score and his competitor cannot get a game time.
Madueke at 60m was a huge piece of business from Chelski. He is ok, but we largely overpaid for a reserve player.
He was £52m
That’s €60m
We paid double his value.
I remember that we also doubled Havertz’s wages. Good thing we didn’t sign any reject from Chelsea this summer
Psg got torres for less thàn Madueke…
Slower forward line is become bigger problem. Arsenal’s counter-attack has been worst, specially without Martinelli. Other teams will be freely high-pressing without worrying of spaces behind their defenders. They will learn fast.
Still do not know why selling Martinelli without appropriate replacement. Tzolist cannot replace either Trossard or Martinelli. Saka performance has been poor since end of last season.
Probably the only positive I can come up with is that thankfully there will be an international break and we fans can also have a cooling down period while manger and players assess the damage and hopefully bounce back. At the same time I have little confidence that we will get much improvement from our players. There are five or six who have peaked and have very little to offer.
This WAS a humiliation – even if the scoreline wasn’t 8-2 6-0 or 5-1!!!
Did the manager and players believe the media hype that we were going to walk the PL, go undefeated and beat Chelsea’s record of goals against???
It certainly looked that way as there seemed to be no urgency, drive or commitment as we were outplayed in every department.
Of course some fans will want to find scapegoats and question the team selection instead of facing the fact that a better team beat us today and their manager outthought ours.
For once I’m welcoming the up coming international break!!
Scapegoating???? Certain players were poor and to be fair anyone of the 11, could be Scapegoated and rightly so. I call it, calling out the dross. And we had plenty of that today. And if we have to “scapegoat” then thats because they were poor, nothing else.
If one is calling out everyone who played today then that’s fair enough but you yourself have named individuals Reggie.along with others of course.
As you say not one of them played to their previous best, so why not call out the lot of them just as Arteta has done?
Mind you, some fans are scapegoating Arteta for dropping Skelley!!
The result was terrible but honestly I don’t feel bad at all. It feels more than a lifetime ago since we had such result so nothing to be ashamed of. If it was one of the big clubs that beat us this way, I would have been alarmed. But since it’s Brighton, then it’s just a rare very bad day at the office
As for scapegoating Arteta for dropping Skelly, it’s good the manager tried what most fans have always felt was our best midfield trio this season. I’m sure Skelly’s importance will now be more obvious.
Like I mentioned above, we go again. I feel really good for the season and can’t wait to make the arrogant Yamal eat his dirty words in the CL
Could’ve easily been 4 or 5-0
We were second best in every department.
A really bad day at the office but having had four away games in 10 days we now have a chance to reset. One for Arteta to learn from and one for me to try and forget.
Every area of the pitch dominated. Well done Brighton and their manager because we were out fought, and Arteta out-managed today. Our attack as usual looks unconvincing and thats the main concern as it has been for a while now and still no fix. I can accept defenders and midfielders having off days along with the opposition simply being on it. But how long has Saka, Kai in particular just not been good enough in the final third? Leaving today with no goals scored is shocking. Saka should not be an automatic starter, just like Odegaard was underperforming last season and needed to be dropped, Saka needs the same treatment. Max and Noni seem to give defenses more trouble these days. Problem is, as it has been for years now, no quality finishers. And now no Trossard so cover over those cracks.
Yes, arteta has been ruthless sometimes with MLS or others… (Gyokeres recently) Saka could and should have been rested more a long time ago.
It always is the defense bailing out the team. Rarely does the attack. Defense has one bad day and it’s a 3-0. Shouldn’t be like that. That’s when you need your attackers to be clinical and take those chances to score. It was a bad day for the back 4 and Raya but they are 99% of the time always on it so I have no real qualms there
Back 4 were good. Midfield was the issue, first two goals were shots outside the box from the same area
The important thing is just to make it a blip – turn this into just an on the day thing, get it out our system, get on a roll and unbeaten run of our own, get this one into the past. This is the fourth away day on the bounce. There’s a couple of months early winter we don’t leave London.
One thing often over looked about football, all the must buy this one, buy buy during open windows, don’t this side look good on paper… yet strongest football comes from the understanding between players, built up over time, that speeds up decisions by reacting almost telepathically.
Example is how Saka and White have it going on, White overlapping Saka can feed him blind folded. It’s importance not obvious on team sheet, but the understanding really helps you hurt openers defences and make goals. Difference with Timber, a great player, but who tends to step inside, whilst white goes outside.
Timber, Konsa, Gabriel, haven’t played that much together, maybe it showed. Nor Rice and Bruno, Bruno and Ode, Tzolis and Kai too, maybe it showed. Today looked a classic not joined up, not partner-shipped up. Maybe over time, what looks good on paper works on grass.
Or maybe it won’t ever work, as they all either both react same or both don’t react at all expecting the other to, like Konsa and Gabriel for Brightons goals, and the whole teamwork balance doesn’t work.
There’s difference between instantly building great sides on paper, and slower process building them on grass.
Every player did not turn up today. No scapegoating. The Gaffer and the players must go back to the drawing board and find a solution. We cannot win all our games but this performance is not acceptable.
Arsenal needs world class wingers and striker.
Quite often, Euro giants who win Champions League, or PL Titles like the Man City sides under Pep, flying at the business end of season, but you wonder why they not like that early doors up to Christmas. So it is a thing in football. Making tweaks during summer, then “growing {into the new season} pains.”
We were second best in every department.
A really bad day at the office but having had four away games in 10 days we now have a chance to reset. One for Arteta to learn from and one for me to try and forget.
Simple answer is tactically and physically inferior. This teams lacks confidence and creativity, however fans ignore it because of the good results. Given the amount of money we spent, we should not be sitting backing absorbing pressure from any team in the world much more mid-level teams like Brighton and Sunderland.
Oh calm down dear. 😇
Truth is So many great sides winning things at business end of seasons, even the ones chock full of world superstars, have had growing pains early in same season.
Team Coherence is the tactical phrase for working on this in training and matches.
We would like to see a bit more cutting edge and clinical goal taking from this Arsenal side, but like goals against are not necessarily fault of goalie or defenders, as sides defend and attack as teams, Arsenal scoring more in matches, and sharing them around, can grow as the coherence grows.
I don’t know why simple statistics fail heavily paid people.
Anytime Arsenals puts a player on a huge contract, they decline, without exception. Giving Saka the huge contract was a mistake that will haunt us for the full 5 years until we let him go for free, unless Saudi comes to save us.
I don’t need to repeat that we have never won anything with Havertz leading and will never.
Am I missing something here Tim or did we become PL champions with Havertz leading the line?
I wouldn’t say Ken he led the line week in / week out mate
He didn’t, he was out injured most of the season.
Gyokores was most of the season?
He almost gave us the win vs psg and gave Chelsea an UCL, no ?? He could be partenered but is he the weakest link of this team ??
We ‘almost’ won. He went missing after that one goal and missed another clear chance. He usually scores one and misses 2 or goes missing. The Brighton defence played without pressure because he was mostly absent. It allowed them to start attacks and handle our attacks well.
For me the silver lining is this defeat happened this season just in the 5th week. Happy it didn’t happen last season which otherwise could have ruined our 22 year title ambitions
We lost last season in our third game ?
The worst thing might be we’ve to regurgitate this humiliating defeat for the extended 3 week period. No chance to respond in 3 days time. We don’t know how safely the internationals return.
4 away games in a row had an impact today. If it was at Emirates, at least we wouldn’t lose
Back down to earth – were good, but not that good. Maybe it’s a good thing – a needed wake up call. We’re favourites to retain the title because we have a deep squad and the other top sides are all in transition or have some known issues – we’re not perfect. Most disappointing is how wide the gap was today (beyond just the scoreline) – we should have been able to make it closer.
I dont see city worse than us. The community shield was a thing. Elliott anderson will probably get better and they got Enzo F. Not sure we are ahead of them
I give lots of credit to Brighton
They are a good side
Champions lose sometimes
It’s about how we recover and come back that’s important
It’s not terrible and humiliating like some people have said.
We lost away to a really good side Away.
Yes we should have played better but it’s not a disaster
Let’s focus on Leeds
And it’s only very early in the season too.
Hard to select today the best performer including the manager. Where are you Jover? Didn’t score your goals in 8 games; worryingly we started to concede. I’m afraid the ongoing redundancy study might impact yours and the throw in specialist
Don’t know what’s going on with Saka, I know players can’t play at the top of their game all the time but he seems to be missing a lot of 1 on 1’s lately.
A really poor day at the office for us today
we didn’t earn the right t play our normal football today
Brighton had a fast start and never stopped from beginning to final whistle
A well deserved win for them a feather in there cap
Could lambast a lot of players today but collectively the whole team were making mistakes and poor.
We bag this one and take the pain of how not to be played off the park as this was painful.
We will lose again this season and Losing is one thing but i honestly forgot how it felt to lose badly. This was bad and I don’t want anymore feelings like this again
Onwards and upwards
Anyone who has seen the press conference after the game now understands how Fabian Hurzeler is building his team up for such a great performance. Great head coach.
Maybe this is the ‘leveller’ that Arsenal need.
We’re not unbeatable.
We won’t run away with the P L Title this year.
Brighton ALWAYS give Arsenal tough games, especially at the Amex – and not only tough games, they’ve often beaten us there – and it’s happened again today.
It’s defeats like this, and how the team responds to them that will define exactly how good this team is going forward.
Declan Rice refused to throw in the towel after losing to Man City at the Etihad last season, and we won the P L Title by 7 points with a game to spare.
We can’t afford too many defeats if we want to retain the P L Title this season, and ‘soft losses’ like this one, are completely unacceptable.
Let’s see how the team responds after the international break.
I still see a successful silverware season ahead of us.
Chris S,
The last team to beat us 3-0, was Brighton. The only difference was, it was at the Emirates. 🤷♂️
Only positive is were players in danger of believing own hype and needed wake up call,?
I heard / read some arrogant comments so some fans needed this as it’s not helpful
if you sincerely believed, why didn’t you go for a Brighton win? Your prediction speaks different to what you’re saying
Always I told you so type
But you do that every season
You make a statement, I say your be wrong and then once I’m proven right you say…..oh so it’s I told you so lol
It’s not I told you so because most knew it wouldn’t happen .
Look at our attack and it’s obvious
I believed we get a result against Brighton , not that we go a whole season undefeated lol
There’s a difference
@Dan
Exactly…👍🏾
That was our “best team” and it stunk!!
Such a poor performance and out performed in every position on the pitch. Guimarez was shocking, Saka and Tzolis non existent. Haverz was hopeless. Konza was poor as was Timber but maybe an excuse for him. Calafiori was awful and Raya was for me slow for the first goal. All we can hope is this was a wake up call. It seems if our defence isn’t working, we do not have a football team. We can only hope it was a bad day, day. But I am not sure it was. Sakas season has not got started and Tzolis again puts in another poor away performance. Embarrassing!!!!!!
Best team on paper, perhaps, not in terms of on field coherence, partnerships and understanding. Not at this stage.
Which reads across, if we sign forward in January, should or could we expect big immeadiate impact from them, or it’s signing for the future? In other words, drop all transfer talk till late spring – theres no cavalry coming over the hill – this lot have to get their cutting edge in front of goal together.
There’s certainly goals squandered today, that could have put more pressure on Brighton. Up front sharpness needs to improve.
Moon Girl, agreed “a bad day at the office”, but Arsenal cannot afford many more.
Arsenal has a top notch centre forward, with whom we won the League and progressed in the Champions League last season, despite Arteta’s tactics not suiting his style of play. This season Gyokeres has been “in the naughty corner” and played limited minutes. If he is the best goal scorer Arsenal has, surely Arteta (has a highly competent manager) can set up the attack to plat to Gyokeres’ strengths to optimise his goal scoring output?
Have you ever seen so many passes made to create so few opposition? What is the good of having more possession and making so many passes, for such little results? Football is all.about putting the ball in the net and stopping the opposition from doing the same. A few shots on goal might help, looking for rebounds etc rather than ticky tacky football trying to walk the ball into the net.
Exactly what the problem is. You as a coach have a striker despite all listed shortcomings scored 22 goals but he and some fans think Kai is better. Kai was here before him and we couldn’t win league neither he scored that amount of goals.
I have been saying, there is something not right with Gyokores and the situation.
Although to be fair to Gyokores, he came on and looked useful. He set Haverz up with a great chance, and his mate fluffed it badly.
The Saka we once knew might be done. The guy was played week in week out for years since being very young… Alreay 320 games played for AFC while he just turned 25 !
I’ll somewhat try to trust our process …..
Just puzzled that with very low budgets, Brighton manages to pick great players and be such a hassle in the EPL ….. in which world are they living where they persistently see what we can’t?
Really good question. But not limited to Arsenal. Liverpool, Newcastle, Tottenham etc would like to know. And Chelsea too, who sign them all in what must be hundreds of million Chelsea pounds onto Brighton Amex card, why can’t they cut out their middle man? 🙂
Like you said, Berta can’t argue cheap player huge risk for us – they ALL seem to thrive there.
Also you suspect, if the manager switched to Villa, Manure or Spuds, they’d fail and be sacked in six months.
I think this is a universal question for any large established entities. This really comes down to the risk appetite, process rigor or sometimes bureaucracy, and necessity. I am fine with our transfer selection, but not taking Chelsea outcasts.
One question, as we always outcry about our poor selling price, maybe it is time to think about players while they are still worth something. I love Saka, but a voice in my mind is saying cash on him before it is too late. Hope I am wrong.
Not to say I don’t like our transfers approach generally – I’m just being a standard neighbour kind of.
I can’t ignore what my other neighbour is doing if they are doing it as well as they’re doing.
Excellent analysis Tyndale. We huff and puff to pick up overrated players who have peaked while teams like Brighton and Bournmouth are able to start again every season by scouting and signing on the cheap the next generation of talent. So much for our amazing head of football. At the same time even with a generous check book Arteta’s record has been s few hits and too many misses .
Looking back, Arteta arrived just before the outbreak of Covid and a completely different senior management group set up. Nobody can convince me that Mari and Cedric were his choice in that January window. They were loans until the summer until Sanhelli conspired to make them permanent. If you recall, the top brass were mostly at fault and have been changed. Look at the quality- or lack of – in that team and most needed to be moved on. It was a massive task that went way beyond just replacing a few players. Already there are complaints about Saka’s contract and his ‘drop off’. but look at what it was like in 2020.
It’s easy to blame Arteta but it’s not easy to change the culture within a club overnight. Both Brighton and Bournemouth have done really well over an extended period to improve within their budgets and ethos and are reaping their rewards. The main difference between them and us is they’re not Arsenal who, like Utd, are expected by the fan base to be not just challenging but winning regularly. They have that settled executive leadership which is vitally important and for some time went under the radar.
Let’s see how both fare in the longer term this season when Europe and cup games kick in week after week. I’m sure they will still be doing well but do their supporters expect league glory? You and I do because it’s Arsenal but its almost a pipe dream for them
You say well.
But sometimes I quietly wish we could raid the brains behind their scouting and talent development — Brighton especially. They are so consistently annoyingly good at it that they’d probably meet the high demands of both the fans and executives at Arsenal.
How many trophy have they won with the players? One blip like will happen, we will still win the league
if anyone notices,there’s been a problem that keeps on recurring time by time and this comes to saka.yes he is one of the best we have but at times it’s better to sacrifice the one man star show and make necessary passes to create chances for others to score..but the problem at times he gets to be selfish,this is all about the team but not a one man show.gyokeres struggles why,yet we have players who can create him good chances…madueke same case as saka’s,eze should just quit that kind of laziness and gear up…something wasn’t quite right with the arsenal players in that vs brighton match
brighton vs arsenal outcome is one of the matches that would make a diehard arsenal fan like me write that longtime composition back then at school with the title “the day i will never forget”.😡
So can we drop the idea that our midfield and defence are so amazing we don’t need invest in top drawer attackers?
I think it’s legitimate question, has our summer business weakened us?
I don’t think we can completely answer it till end of season, you try something new, there’s a bedding in period.
Because it’s not just the ins and outs, last season Zubi started lots of games at 6, Rice 8, Gyokeres 9, and no matter what you thought of that, performances like today’s never happened. There was a single minded consistently, rather than open minded exploring options each game. Balance and cohesion was perhaps better?
One example, JA often agree Havertz technically stronger than Gyokeres. But which one would you rather have one on one with a keeper?
Yes logically our attack is weaker
That’s factual
But we’ve been here Dan. The way you are doing the math to prove we are weaker, does not take into consideration that Eze as false 9 is by far our most effective option, turbo charging our attack, getting far better results than Kai and Gyokeres options. Your method of adding it up doesn’t include a whole load of untried out the box options.
But Eze was an option last season with Martinelli and Trossard and Nwaneri ( till January) and Nwaner and Jesus
So logically what’s better
Eze, Trossard, Martinelli, Maduake , Jesus and Nwaneri
Or Eze , Maduake and a player from Belgium
To me it’s obvious
Not now helped by the way Gyokres has been treated
A Greek bringing his gifts from Belgium. To leave little doubt, as you did.
If we are going to discuss this as adults, we need to be straight with such details.
Belgium is the home of raining bowler hats, but with Tzolis you ask: how much does a Grecian Urn?
I can go on all night you know. It’s only half ten.
No problem with him but is he alone good enough to replace Trossard , Martinelli , Jesus and Nwaneri ?
4 out and 1 in
Here is one simple tweak that could suddenly awaken us into irresistible goal scoring super kings. Not ciggies, but actual real super kings. Whatever they are.
Kai goes inverted left forward, Ode goes support striker to Gyokeres. That’s not to play it to Ode but through Ode, all three of them often very close quarters to each other playing with each other.
Moon Girl, your proposal is certainly worth a try!😀
But remember many fans didn’t want Alvarez , V Junior, Williams , etc
Hubris set in quickly.
This is another debate because these players (alvarez and vini at least) did not want afc. Especially alvarez. It was crystal clear and yet afc spend seemingly a big part of the summer chasing this guy. Too bad. I remember arteta saying that if a player was not thrilled about playing for us, it was not a good sign (5, 6 years ago).
But did those players want Arsenal? Baseless sentence because truth is they didn’t?
didn’t say they did
said some fans didn’t want them hence thinking what we have is better then reality
There isn’t a debate, they didn’t want to come? Wanted or not!
And it didn’t matter what “some fans didn’t want” they didn’t want to come, whatever. Why name them?
Football – and all sport – is not all technical ability, it’s personality too.
Those with killer instinct, and those lacking competitive arrogance.
Moon Girl, what are the comparative goals scored outputs per season of Havertz vs Gyokeres for Arsenal and previous clubs? Not in the same league, yet now Havertz is preferred. Why with the players at his disposal, does Arteta not set up the team, maintaining Arsenal’s strengths in defence and midfield, but playing to Gyokeres strenths?
Also in matches I have watched where Gyokeres plays, he often occupies the attention of two defenders (or more), leaving openings for team mates.
Haverz is in apparently to win duals and hold the ball up better than Gyokores and score better than Gyokores. Problem is, he doesn’t.
Havertz is a better all round player for Arsenal’s system than Gyokeres.
Gyokeres doesn’t have the pace or technique to outwit many of the top level defences Arsenal are up against.
David and Reggie, given that Arsenal cannot bring another striker in until the January break and there is nothing to say that there is one with a better record than Gyokeres out there, shouldn’t the Mikel Arteta az manager, be looking to sdjust Arsenal’s “system” to better utilize Gyokeres skill set. His first season was not shabby, his goal contributions help win the League, yet he has played limited minutes this season. Arsenal’s goal productivity, given possession and passing stats (not leading to shots on goal), has been underwhelming.
100%
Saka a victim of the entitlement virus. Show by your sweats not by the number of years in the Arsenal structure. Saka is super obsessed with scoring esp penalties. Teammates are never pawns dear Saka
Brighton were excellent, we were poor without an exception – maybe Rice the only exception.
Few things alarming. First, that could’ve been 5 or 6-0 – we lost it under pressure. For defending champions, that is beyond wake-up call.
Second, it’s the same old pressing tactics that – executed well – we struggle with. That is going to seem very obvious now to other teams.
Third, with the press in mind, we seriously lack pace across the board, and now we can’t even bring on Martinelli.
Let’s hope we find answers for the press and our diminished attack – pre injuries – can find answers.
Brighton played with an intensity throughout the match which we simply could not match. Whenever we had the ball they swarmed around us like a colony of ants and on two occasions they scored from around 20/25 yards when certain defenders, namely Califiori, and Gabriel failed to engage the scorers.I have to laugh at the criticism aimed at Havertz when it was our much vaunted back four and keeper who were decidedly under par today, along with our midfield trio who were unable to exercise control and create much in the way of pressure.A poor performance against a side which must be one of the fittest in the League .A team which showed energy on and off the ball which we were unable to match principally because our centre backs were unable to play their normal high line due to the unrelenting press by the Brighton athletes.I very much doubt if Brighton can maintain such intensity throughout the season ,but their tactics worked a treat today, against an Arsenal side which did not look like Champions material to me.
Finishers are supposed to be game changers. Are we seeing it from Eze and Gyokeres? Arteta needs to have clear the air conversation with these two in the international break.
Tzolis is a mechanical player with definite skills. He doesn’t have a variety of skills which he can utilise depending upon the opponent and demands of the game. Tzolis can’t even dribble past a training cone
Early days but at the moment, I think Tzolis is finding the prem tooooooo much. He may be a good player but he certainly isn’t frightening.
This wasn’t on TNT or Sky, and as far as I could make out, it was not televised anywhere else (in the UK), and I only saw highlights on MOTD, but everyone has such insight. How did you all manage it?
Peeps find a way Jax
I listened on Arsenal radio and didn’t fancy the misery of MoTD. Cowardly in my case
It was a good one to miss, Sue. Must have been on live somewhere in the world for the streamers to get it.
Amazon Prime Video
Ha! I’m subscribed to that🤣
Sorry that was Spurs – Aston Villa. I think it was on 3+
👍
You’re kidding 😡😡😡. I forgot about that
Phew!!! So did I🤣
Get yourself a hooky firestick.
Brighton were really not that good, they were exactly what we should’ve been expecting, and we would’ve lost to any team, probably even the Spuds had we turned up like that. We were losing the ball in our own half and second balls, the defence was shambolic, and then allowing Brighton players all the time to pick their spot on goal outside the penalty area while our forwards couldn’t score from 4 clear opportunities one on one with their goalkeeper inside their penalty area. Sorry, but Brighton haven’t metamorphosized into the next Real Madrid, but our forwards which are always dodgy AND our backs which are normally so reliable were absolutely woeful. I don’t know what state they turned up in, but it wasn’t one that was acceptable.
Those who knew the Italy team at WC 1982 this Brighton team exactly look like them in their kits. Paulo Rossi’s team.
This is what makes the Premiership so unpredictable. On the day Brighton did a job on us, and for whatever reason we couldn’t respond.
Now it would be easy for me to go in on individuals, but to be honest as a team they got exactly what they deserved today, and that was nothing.
And just to say, that on another day, Rice could have got a red instead of the yellow that thankfully the ref deemed was enough punishment.
And just to say, far to often when the fancied team is beaten, it’s all about how bad they were. Well how about a bit of acknowledgement of how good Brighton were. They ran that game from start to finish.
If Sunderland’s Brobbey did today’s hattrick over Man City before the closure of the transfer window, he could have joined a top team for 100m.
Unbelievable striker instincts!
My question is, why would Arteta tries to fix what was not broken? Why benching Skelly? I had expected him to know how Brighton’s coach organized his team.
There’s no cause for alarm yet. But he must stop playing Harvetz as a top striker. He is not a Striker. He should encourage Gyokeres just as he did for Harvetz when he lost form. Eze is not a winger. I don’t know why the Coach refused to accept this