Arsenal are on the south coast this afternoon for what looks like one of their most demanding Premier League tests of the season so far, with Brighton waiting at the Amex Stadium.
The Gunners arrive with a perfect record of seven wins from seven across all competitions, but as we discussed in our Brighton v Arsenal match preview, the Seagulls have been scoring freely and have made their home ground an increasingly difficult place to visit.
Arteta wants Arsenal to impose themselves
Mikel Arteta has made his intentions clear despite the challenge Brighton pose.
As we covered earlier today, the Arsenal boss wants his team to play with the same authority away from home that they show at the Emirates.
Arteta said Arsenal want to play with “dominance” regardless of the venue and stressed that his players must earn the right to beat what he described as a very tough opponent.
That could make for an intriguing contest against a Brighton side that has shown little fear going forward this season.
Arsenal team news offered encouragement
There was some positive news ahead of the game, with Ben White expected to be available after being withdrawn at half-time against Sunderland.
Jurrien Timber, Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie were also hoping to prove their fitness in Arsenal’s final training session, although William Saliba remains unavailable with his back problem.
You can read our full team news, predicted lineup and score prediction here.
Now we finally know who Arteta has selected for the challenge at the Amex.
Arsenal confirmed team v Brighton
🔴 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠𝙉𝙀𝙒𝙎 ⚪️
Your Gunners. Ready to go 👊
🤝 Presented by @Deel
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 19, 2026
This is a fixture that may have made a few Gooners nervous given Brighton’s attacking form, but Arsenal have started the campaign with tremendous consistency.
If Arteta’s side can impose themselves in the manner their manager wants, another important three points could be there for the taking.
Gooners, what do you make of Arteta’s starting XI? Has he picked the team you wanted to see against Brighton?
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Very attack minded line up. Would have kept MLS given that this is an away fixture against a very attack minded team. COYG!
This is why MLS should have started the game ahead of Bruno
OT
Villa seems to be taking care of Spurs 0-2 to Villa lol
I’m happy with Arsenal lineup
It will be a really tough match but hopefully we can pull out a victory
De Zerbi is overhyped and Spuds should’ve got relegated last season
Based on Brighton’s performance in Carabao Cup against Man United, Arsenal would likely win today
They’ve lost Welbeck, Mitoma and Minteh, whereas we just lost our best left wingers
As my brother just messaged me….
they think it’s all over……..
Embarrassing after they spent squillions in the transfer market
Squillions spent in transfer market paying way over price for everyone’s cast offs, just buy whatever available in window regardless what it is because Zerbi amazing coach.
Spurs have achieved big milestone, scoring in the Prem for first time this season. Maybe their team of expensive rejects could manage a few Prem wins this season, and not go down with lowest points total ever.
The two Greeks face each other Kostou vs Tzolis. Saka will have a tough afternoon v Boscagli who was selected for the first time for France
Is there not element though how Arsenal play down right he gets support? The opposite though like “Boscagli will have a tough afternoon double and sometimes triple teamed by Arsenal?”
How much help does Brighton give him if it’s not one v Saka, but ganged up on?
Not necessarily mine but probably the strongest team Arteta could have put out bar Saliba. It will be interesting because away from home, Tzolis, Saka and Haverz have to step it up. It will be interesting to see how Guimarez will do today.
Yes Reggie, a strong side, full of ball, winning midfield bite.
Good lineup, Bruno sreamer wins it. Let show the seagals who got the guns 🔫
Brighton have started well with pressing
It was coming
Brighton were better so far
This could be possible banana skin for Arsenal
Arsenal aren’t well coordinated and Tzolis was too slow when there was an open space in the final third for him
If Arsenal can’t win against the severely depleted Brighton, they must sign a new LW in January
Otherwise, all the rest are playing brilliantly, except for Tzolis.
Don’t know what game you’re watching but the team have been terrible. Misplaced passes by virtually everyone, defenders standing off the goalscorers.
True!! Losing possession cheaply has been our major undoing!!!
It was a sarcasm. I was referring to constant blaming of Tzolis, who hasn’t been signed as the 1st choice. Eze is becoming an expensive commodity, who didn’t show up in a single game so far, but Tzolis gets the blame. The same goes for Saka, too.
Hard to tell sarcasm when a 😉 isn’t used.
Note taken 😉
Defense looks rattled today, calafiori especially is not reading the game well, needed to close that space down. Instead him and Gabriel take the same action and give a free shot. Raya will be disappointed that went in too. Attack again, below average. Hopefully someone steps up
Raya had a very shaky start as well
Few misplaced passes early in game
Also very flat footed for goal
Not only Raya’s fault. The defenders gave their strikers enough space and time. They should have closed down by going closer before they hit
Apparently we have lost the best 7 games when this ref has been the ref,so the omens aren’t good
Spot on Highbury
So its the refs fault we played like individuals. Is he a Gypsy?
So far Brighton’s pressing is spot on so far
And we are unable to break the press
The way Raya is going long, you can sense that Brighton’s pressing is spot on
My heart ruled my head in the predictions league as whilst I was really worried about this game, especially at their place, I put us down for a win🤞
Mine too GB
Is game over??
Yep a huge wake up call.
Well Brighton was down 2-0 to United and won
Arsenal need to get their act together.
2-0 down.
Arsenal have just not got going at all.
And I am SICK of Sky Sports commentary.
Revelling in it..
Wake up Arsenal…
Bad 1st half
Brighton’s pressing tactics were absolutely spot on
Arsenal were not ready for this press and panicked which allowed Brighton to grow confidence
Very very poor display
Arteta needs to show what he has in his bag for tactical tweaks
@Kedar
Arsenal are never ready for the press. Choke us out on the right and add a high press to that. And we fold. Jus sayin 🤷🏾
We are completely lost with attack while defense at the front of the box was non existent. Center backs are fully exposed without midfield protection. I would take Bruno out for Lewis Skelly but this may be too late with 2 goals down.
Our attack is slow as always.
I think Brighton’s pressing tactics were absolutely spot on so far
The way Brighton pressed was very intense and we were unable to break the press
The way Raya was going long shows were not ready for that kind press and we panicked
If we can’t play out from back then we are done because we don’t have any other outlay
Havertz and Gyokores are not Halaand or Brobby where you can just simply throw speculative ball over the top and they will win the physical battle the defender and allow wingers and AM to drag into the game
So if we team stops us playing from back then we are done
And thats what exactly happened in the 1st half
Groß’s goal was difficult to prevent, but Kostoulas should’ve been closed down by Magalhaes or Konsa before the Greek teenager made the shot
If I were Arteta and the situation doesn’t change after the sixtieth minute, I’d replace Guimaraes with Lewis-Skelly to move the ball faster to our left wing
We need to understand that this ref won’t give us fouls for pushes by Brighton players or when protecting the ball and falling over. Stop it and go full physical. Brighton is a dangerous team at home when on form but their defense is weak especially when you can bypass their pressing. Game’s not over but we need to up the intensity by a lot.
I don’t think today it was on ref
It was a bad half from team
They were very bad
No I’m not blaming the ref but them for failing to adapt to him. Some ref don’t give fouls for those and many times we lost the balls like that and it was dangerous.
I shouldn’t have taken the Michael out of Spurs.
Saka flunks our only chance of the half and then they go up the other end and smash in an absolute screamer, sort it out Arsenal! 🙄
Hey Liam and haters, I blame Martinelli 100%for this horror and not wonder players like King Kai, Saka, Timber or the captain. Real football Will be the winner. Fast , energetic and go forward. Lets see how our genios manager deals with this. Should be a good watch regardless.
Haters? Really 🤷♂️
Gonk!!!
Typical Saka these days. Defense though looks like they never played together. Chucking it down to an off day. Hopefully we can salvage a draw. Not sure what Bruno G is bringing to today’s game also. And clear why we wanted a level raiser in attack. Looks ordinary out there
If our left winger is not going to perform well, then Brighton will win. We don’t have a replacement yet on that position. We are struggling
Absolutely terrible. I hope Arteta gives them a rocket at half time. Brighton are missing players and average at best.
We can’t handle their press and couldn’t last season either tbf and got away with a smash & grab last season. Brighton manager has a clear game plan to play at a high intensity to counter our attempts to slow games down away from home and they’re being well rewarded. This team haven’t woken up. And lack of any big attacking threat in our front 3 encourages them to keep throwing numbers forward
I think Brighton’s pressing tactics were absolutely spot on so far
The way Brighton pressed was very intense and we were unable to break the press
The way Raya was going long shows were not ready for that kind press and we panicked
If we can’t play out from back then we are done because we don’t have any other outlay
Havertz and Gyokores are not Halaand or Brobby where you can just simply throw speculative ball over the top and they will win the physical battle the defender and allow wingers and AM to drag into the game
So if we team stops us playing from back then we are done
And thats what exactly happened in the 1st half
We need to change something in this game
You would’ve thought we’d have at least brought on Dowman, give them something to think about.
Madueke gives defenses the most to think about even if it doesnt always come off, he can get us into the final third quickly better than any other player in the squad. Noni or Max beats Saka ghosting another game.
Shit
Most succinct summing up award of the year goes to…
I couldn’t think of anything else?
So we need to do to Brighton what Brighton did to United
Come back from 2-0 down
We have the team to do it
Never Give Up
COYG
But Brighton are not Utd
They are way better than Utd
And today we are looking like Utd
I think Brighton’s pressing tactics were absolutely spot on so far
The way Brighton pressed was very intense and we were unable to break the press
The way Raya was going long shows were not ready for that kind press and we panicked
If we can’t play out from back then we are done because we don’t have any other outlay
Havertz and Gyokores are not Halaand or Brobby where you can just simply throw speculative ball over the top and they will win the physical battle the defender and allow wingers and AM to drag into the game
So if we team stops us playing from back then we are done
And thats what exactly happened in the 1st half
Wondering why Odegaard is playing so deep
Guimaraes losing the ball so often!
Brighton looks like PSG…difference is Brighton plays one touch football, Arsenal still locked in that “ twist and turn” football….
I was worried about this game, and going per the first half we will need a massive improvement to salvage anything. Our decision making final third is horrible, and saka missing that chance sums it up. Tzolis is afraid to take his man and we are playing too many backward passes
Ma must replace Bruno G with Geo
Terrible 1st half. Players need a rocket up the a*ses at halftime.
True!! Losing possession cheaply has been our major undoing!!!
Brighton have proved over the years that they are no pushovers, infact they’ve been a very very good side. I knew this game wasn’t going to be an easy one I didn’t even expect us to win although a draw wouldn’t be bad . 2’goals down already in first half. Would hincapie and lewis-skelly have been better today that calafiori and Bruno G respectfully???
All that is needed now is for the team to give account of themselves in the 2nd half .
COYG.
Wish I’d predicted 3-0 and not 1-2😫
Sorry should have put 5-0 cos that’s the way it’s going.
Brighton have destroyed Arsenal
We are getting thrashed !
Oh dear
Only listening on Arsenal radio thank goodness
Hurzeler is a very good manager
Arsenal weren’t serious at defending their title by not signing an explosive inverted LW to replace Martinelli
Missing Martinelli
More slow footed ones on. He loves the 28-29 year olds. Imagine if Mitoma were fit and playing. Or, I don’t want to.
Game over 🙄
Game was already over when it was 3-0
Now it’s all about keeping the score low
Skelly and Rice is better than Bruno and Rice, Skelly offers control more than those two
Problems all over the pitch today. A bit disappointed Mikel dropped MLS the first chance he got though.
Only 5
I didn’t for one minute think this would be the score, but as they say you can’t win them all 🤷♀️
We weren’t going to win every single match.
Also if we played Brighton at home we may still have drawn or even lost.
They are a very good side and we are playing them away
If we lose then We just need to just learn from our loss and move on
Problem is not losing the game
But we were no way near of Brighton’s level and that’s frustrating
Maybe we should’ve improved our attack? Maybe we should’ve bought a proven left winger? Sorry, but this is an average team at best, who spent 32.5 million net spend in the transfer window, we should be able to cope with their press, and we should be able to score against them.
It’s not about players only
We were absolutely outclassed by Brighton and we don’t have plan B
I wouldn’t say that’s true at all, if we had strikers, who could shoot on goal, and not at the goalkeeper we would be level by now. We’ve had at least 3 1 on 1 with the goalkeeper, 2 Saka and 1 Havertz
We shouldve but a new left winger, even Kvicha today, wouldve not won us this game.
Todays performance is more profound, its just overall total performance from BHA while Arsenal are playing like they want to just qualify for Champions League.
Totally humbled today. Has us looking towards January to fix the attack because it looks ordinary and this isn’t the only game it has. Arsenal need to be ready to make a big move in January. We need goal scorers, good finishers badly. No chance at UCL with that front 3, and has me questioning if we can retain the title too because these guys just aren’t good finishers and Saka is not going to be the guy to carry us and consistently rack up G/A’s.
To be clear, the problems were in every area of the pitch today. But leveling 1-1 when it mattered couldve changed this entire game.
Absolute shambles, poor finishing again like the Napoli game, we got away with it that night, no chance today.
By the end of last season, everyone knew that our offense is the weakest link in the team but what did Arteta do to improve it? 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.
I don’t think attack was the only problem today
Whole team played bad today
We were bad in every department
I agree the attack is not the only problem. The issue is that we don’t have the attack that can compensate the shortcomings of the defense. Our defense has to be 100% for us to win the game because the attack cannot overcome a shootout.
Just a bad day at the office – it happens.
I really do think it was a mistake not signing a top class left winger.
Best to make these mistakes early in the season, learn from them and move on…
Yes
Problem was not signing LW
Today even if we would have had Vinicius Junior and Alvarez then still we would have lost today because we so bad today in every department
Not true I’m afraid, we’ve had more than ample opportunities to get ahead, just not good on hitting the goal.
Arteta sometimes is arrogant and doesn’t have a clue what to do, the sub should have come on immediately after first half. Odegard wasn’t playing well, Madueke would have offered more considering it’s speed and trick. Skelly offers more control in Midfield than Rice and Bruno. The pairing of Gab and Konsa today was so bad, reason why two aggressive CB not the best to pair with.
And the ref is bad a lil
Awful, poor football, beaten by a better team.. That was embarrassing and telling. Poor style and commitment. Sala, Tzolis, Haverz, Odegaard Guimarez, POOR!
Der Schulausflug endete heute nicht gut. Die Kinder waren vor Erschöpfung schlecht gelaunt.
I’m fed up. The same style. We went like a school trip. For what reason did he leave a free cross by putting Guimaraes, in place of Luis Skelly who can intercept in addition to playing. What stupidity Approach. Guimaraes is just resting Odegaard. But the rest of them are like they went for a walk in the park with the dog. Bad, very bad mentality. What do they think? Arteta, it’s your fault.
Well Arteta was right, it was an entertaining game. What a show,! Even when 3 down no urgency like they gave up long ago.
A completely and utterly piss poor performance.
Lewis Skelly should have started and left Bruno on the bench which is exactly where he needs to be – starting against the likes of Fleetwood..
Bruno just gave the ball away far too many times. Skelly is a much better player and more to the point is Arsenal through and through – Bruno is just a foreign mercenary…
Brilliant performance by Brighton who were better in every position and situation.
I’m not looking for excuses rather looking for the full time whistle in order to stop this embarrassment.
The only good thing is the international break so that we can lick our wounds, sort out what went wrong, realize we are not invincible and hope MA gets it right for the visit of Leeds United.
Its all about our weak attack, which we actually managed to weaken in the transfer window with the loss of Matinelli and Trossard. If we had attackers with blistering pace they wouldn’t have been so confident of pressing up high, which they were. Absolute and complete embarrassment. Even Spurs managed to score today.
What a stinker…looks like Bambi-Havertz is untouchable….Saka needs to be put on the bench and sold….Tzolis is just an average player…..thank you Arteta for the “ Alvarez saga”…
Have always said Saka, Odegaard and Havertz need upgrades. We have always won because of a solid defense and the moment they played badly we have been thrashed. Odegaard is just like Bruno Fernandes very good when the team is dominating but once we are under pressure he offers nothing. Teams who shoot from outside the box troubles us a lot. Eze on left wing is a joke. Tzolis is always isolated as Odegaard only patrols in areas near Saka. Odegaard needs to play centrally just behind the striker and support Tzolis as much as he supports Saka. It would have been better to play Calafiori as left winger when Tzolis was substituted than playing Eze there. Arteta doesn’t have a plan B especially against teams who press us. Selling Trossard and Martinelli was bad bad business. I would have kept Trossard than getting the little money we got for him. We can’t be selling all players above 30 years even when they are still good.
Have you really?
Were you saying that before this game?
It’s just one game.
Odegaard and Saka have been excellent up until today.
Give your head a wobble…
Have always said this many times. When has Saka been excellent this season? Odegaard is only good when we are dominating and I have always said this. He is not good enough as a 10.
“ Saka needs to be put on the bench and sold…”
The most understated reaction of the year award goes to –
Mon Girl.
Beats me how they can say all this about a game that wasn’t televised.
Jax, there’s plenty of streams available for games that aren’t on TV.
The difference difference was, Brighton foundbearly that there’s a hole in our CDM
Their first 2 goals were the same – someone was making the space in front of our CBs always free and too big for shootin
Guess what
There was a change in personnel in our CDM
U would have thought it was obvious that Bruno G shouldn’t start the 2nd half
Nonetheless we generally could not handle Brighton – Skelly starting might just have made it a smaller loss or a draw
MA got this totally wrong, players were nervous and some
stunk out the place (Bruno ) One on the goal Kai is abysmal !! We need Oshimen in jan..
Well at least we haven’t got to discuss being invincible
Didn’t see it but listening was bad enough. Hope it was just one of those days rather than something else
What a humiliation. Downright embarrassing performance by Arsenal. When key players like Odegaard, Guimarães and Saka are underperforming, then it can only go wrong. I am very, very disappointed. The whole football world has now been given the key to how to defeat Arsenal. On the other hand, I must admit that I am very impressed by a team like Brighton, who over time have sold their best players and continue to find and develop players of high quality. The Brighton players are good combination players with good football understanding and are today aggressive in all facets of the game and succeed in shaking Arsenal. Arsenal had no countermove, a plan B, when we are attacked by wild aggressive players. I would say that Brighton are on their way to becoming title contenders, if they can deliver more of such games against some of the supposedly strongest opponents in the league. I would like Arsenal to be able to play like Brighton and show this hunger to win, to see that Arsenal are willing to give everything to win and defend the title. Today, unfortunately, we didn.t see this. Todays Arsenal performacne also showed that we are paying the price for not signing the effective striker and left winger, which we are sorely lacking today. I know that almost no matter how good a team you have, you will run into problems against a team like Brighton, who just delivered an excellent and outstanding result on the day. They were in all facets of the game just so much better than Arsenal today. What we experienced today should be a powerful wake-up call for Arsenal. We can only hope that Arsenal have learned something from today.
Simba “Have always said this many times. When has Saka been excellent this season?”
I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but this season is only five games old.
So