Arsenal’s devastating and unexpected 3-0 defeat to Brighton has inevitably raised questions about our title defence. It is obviously very early in the season, and one defeat certainly doesn’t decide where the Premier League trophy will end up, but after what we witnessed at the Amex, I think there are reasons for Arsenal supporters to be concerned.
Arsenal cannot afford too many performances like Brighton
The Gunners won the league for the first time in 22 years back in May, and naturally we are hoping to retain that piece of silverware next year. However, as we know, winning titles can be defined by very small margins.
I don’t think it’s fair to expect Arsenal to go through the whole season undefeated, but it is crucial that we don’t start dropping too many points early on, particularly when our title rivals Manchester City have maintained their 100% start to the season.
Arsenal simply didn’t show up against the Seagulls.
On paper, this was a game we should have been capable of winning, yet we didn’t even score or produce the sort of fightback that we have seen from this team in recent times.
It still feels crazy writing that Arsenal lost 3-0 to Brighton. The last time we lost by that scoreline was more than three years ago and, ironically, it was the Seagulls who beat us on that occasion too.
I don’t want to start talking about some sort of “Brighton curse”, but it certainly felt like one today!
More importantly, we now need to ground ourselves and make sure we show up in our next game.
One defeat doesn’t end a title challenge
Admittedly, last season Arsenal lost our third game of the campaign to Liverpool before eventually winning the title.
That was different, though. Liverpool were the reigning league champions for starters, and Arsenal also hadn’t won a league game at Anfield for more than 11 years.
Brighton was a different challenge. We beat them 1-0 last season and, although we have struggled against them in recent seasons, we had still managed to win at the Amex.
Perhaps Brighton are simply on a stronger course this season. They thrashed Aston Villa 4-0 on the opening Premier League weekend and are already only a couple of points behind us.
Even so, this was a very concerning afternoon for Arsenal.
One defeat is not enough to say our title defence is collapsing, particularly this early in the campaign. However, if we start dropping more points over the coming weeks, I will certainly begin worrying about whether the Premier League trophy will be returning to the Emirates.
Arsenal need to make sure Brighton was simply one terrible afternoon and respond immediately.
Liam Harding
We’ll have to wait until after the 3 week international break to see whether the Gunners can respond or not, when they welcome Leeds to the Emirates on October 10..
What do you think, Gooners? Was the Brighton defeat simply a bad day at the office, or are you already concerned about Arsenal’s title defence? Let us know in the comments below.
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We will be under pressure the whole season.
We need to regroup. MA needs to fix the issues the best he can and we need to move on
Brighton is a good side and beating them away was always going to be tough
I think with our first 4 wins we got complacent and generally had a bad day at the office
This happens to best once in a while. It’s how we come back from this loss that’s more important than this loss
Everything pointed to this conclusion. Brigthon is
a good team with a great work-ethic, Afc were complacent and badly prepared.. I´m having a hard time
understanding Merino´s role in the team. He loses the ball a lot and his silky moves are useless in a tough leauge
like PL. For the first time I agree with Ty from aftv;
We move ahead.. and learn.
Liam, good points raised. It serves as a wake up call and reality check. And it’ll make Arteta more ruthless as he needs to have showdown talks with some players esp so called finishers.
We didn’t score headers but began conceding. Why?
Aren’t the games enough to integrate the new comers esp Konsa and Guimaraes?
Hardly unexpected, the Brighton manager and team were fuming last year. He spoke disparagingly of Arsenal at his pre-match press press-briefing; something that is almost unheard of in a pre-match interview. It was obvious they were spitting feathers and out to kill us. Anyone who couldn’t see this and prepare for it shouldn’t be in the job. Arteta should have seen this and got the team as wound up as they were. It has been a great start to the season and we should be proud, but this was psychology 101, entirely predictable, and we have to learn from it.
This result seperates the true fans from the plastic ones. The plastic ones are free to support some relegation battling team down the road if the drive to the Emirates is disgusting for them.
We lost, we learn, we move ahead.Period.
We need to be more direct and less playing little triangular passes when we play teams who play anti football
Mikel is a clever coach, he and his coaches will go back to the training ground and practice the set pieces over the break.
You don’t win the league and come second thrice if you lose one game!
This result doesn’t matter.
What matters is of it happens again before Christmas.
In games like these last season, our set pieces would bail us out.
Gyokeres needs to get more game time.
A bad day at the office, and like winning our first four League games didn’t mean we were going to win the League, losing one game doesn’t mean we won’t either.
Fair play to Brighton they did a job on us, and respect to their manager and them as a club. They are a well run club.
For me the question mark that is always in my mind is our attack. And it’s not just this season, I questioned it last season to.
While our defense and midfield produce more often than not, there’s something just not right about our attack. I can’t put my finger on it, but it just doesn’t seem to function the way we need it to.
But again, fair play to Brighton. But no need to panic, they say it’s how you react to a set back is all important. Lets see how they react after this pesky International break.
Yes Brighton were on a mission Derek, as MikeB points out. Not sure they could keep that up all season. We did crumble under pressure though – it could’ve been 5 or 6-0. Our defence looks a little less composed without Saliba.
Hopefully a blip against a team on a mission.
In attack, well we did weaken it in the transfer window. Trossard was reliable. I think we really lack pace across the board, something Martinelli brought – he was third fastest player in premier league last year, according to some stats. Tzolis not quick, Rice neither, Bruno slow, Merino comically slow. None of the other rapid.
Our lack of pace, particularly in midfield, is a glaring defect which the signing of Guimaeres did not alleviate.However ,the hammering was due to our collective failure to cope with the man for man pressing by the athletical Brighton players.This is a risky tactic which may well rebound on Brighton against teams who are not concerned with winning the possession game but against us it worked very well, as our centre backs struggled to play out from the back as they were constantly under pressure.Other Clubs such as Bournemouth and Brentford, who are highly unlikely to be involved in a relegation battle, will almost certainly try to emulate the Brighton press when they meet us, but hopefully Arteta will have found a solution by then.Gabriel and Califiori were culpable for the first two Brighton goals when they failed to engage the scorers and our excellent Keeper might have done better with the first counter imo..A bad day at the office for virtually all our players, but I would hope our attitude will be much improved when we play a very decent Leeds side.
No mention on how bad Saka was, and he has been poor for so long, he is suppose to be injury free, yet his terrible miss was evidence he hasn’t got what we need in a winger
Foreverinourshadow,
Regards Saka, I have to agree with you. Yes he’s scored 3 goals this season, his assists I couldn’t tell you. But overall he’s not doing what we need on a regular enough basis.
I believe he gets away with a lot, because he’s the clubs poster boy, the so called shining light for the academy. And this in turn means that people are turning a blind eye to his less than impressive performances.
And the sad thing is his back-up, who is Madueke is no better either.🤷♂️
We can only go on their previous games Derek, Madueke had a good game and Saka didn’t. The big question is, who do we get as back up to Saka? We won the league with Madueke as back up to Saka ?
Reggie,
You say Madueke had a good game. There’s the problem, he had a good game. One good game in 5 is not good enough.
Just how long are the fans supposed to wait for him to reach this so called potential he has. For £50M, I’d expect a better return on my investment.
As for winning the League with him as Saka’s back-up, well going by that logic we won the League with Norgaard as back-up in the midfield. How many games did he play?.
yeah in a league cup tie where Saka was on the bench
For 50 million we need more then that
Saka so far has had a better season
We have become a little complacent and started believing the BS written and spoken about being champions again. Each game in the EPL is a war. We all know we are light on now with our forwards- But that does not explain whyOdegaarde, Saka and our forwards wer so ineffective.- we were run out of it all over the pitch and defensively second to the ball as a team. Brighton are a good team but there are several good teams at least as good as them. Maybe we need a reset and rethink about how we set up in midfield to be more solid- as we were last year.If we can’t win a game we can at least make sure we don’t lose as easily as this.
It was an awful performance by Arsenal. Can say “They just didn’t turn up” or “It was a bad day at the office” or whatever, but it happens. The team is clearly yet to properly integrate the changes in personnel, so lots of work to do. That will happen and therefore hopefully nothing major to worry about.
Arsenal are the Premier League Champions.
Every team is out to beat us this season.
Brighton succeeded yesterday, and they always give is a tough game, sometimes they beat us.
If teams can’t beat us they’ll do everything they can to get the draw.
That’s football – and as Champions, everyone we play will get extra satisfaction in taking points from us.
Arsenal need to make sure that those other teams don’t get what they want.
We still have what it takes to retain the Title.
We need to play every game like the P L Title depends on it – Because it does.
If we can’t bully, we are sitting ducks. And truth is, we got bullied and some. Guimarez, Saka, Tzolis, Haverz and Odegaard got out fought and out thought, every time. Timber isn’t yet fit, Calafiori got exposed and Konza looked like a rabbit in headlights. But most of all our tactics were exposed and badly.
@Reggie
This is what happens when you don’t have a Plan B. We weren’t bullied. We were outplayed. Last time we beat them, we did so by using delay tactics. Because we had no other answer to their press. This time, they overwhelmed us with a more intense press and the fear in our eyes were apparent. We folded. And went in for the kill. Huerzler said it the last time and applies to this time as well.”Only one team came out to play football today”
“We had fear in our eyes” but we weren’t bullied🤣 we were bullied, we were intimidated, we were out played, out thought.
@Reggie
And here I was thinking, the physicality of the EPL is what separates them from all the other leagues…🤔
It can be curious to see the discourse between you two whenever Arsenal lose games as it often leans into crude exaggerations of Arsenal’s performance. Brighton may have edged some of the duels but It is untrue to claim that Arsenal were outfought every time.
Derek and Grandad have posted far more reasonable assessments. There were a number of aspects of Arsenal’s performance that helped Brighton. These include profligacy, defensive errors and lack of clarity in build up play.
Brighton were more accurate and decisive in key moments. They also significantly overperformed their Xg which will be difficult to do over the course of a season.
We were bested in every aspect. Do not talk tripe.
Arsenal were not bested in every aspect. Of course, Brighton played better overall and deserved their win. However, it is not tripe to analyse properly rather than simply demean the efforts of the players.
Arsenal may have actually edged the ground duels even though Brighton were better with aerial duels. Arsenal also had more ball possession.
David,
Arsenal had more ball possession you say. Brighton had the ball in out goal 3 times. So you’re point is?.
we lost 3-0 !
The fact is our attack is short on numbers, (sold 3 bought) and short on quality. Its questionable if any of our front 3 would be starters in many other top teams.
Bad day at the office, made worse by an attack that needed strengthening but we did nothing.
Wasted all window on Alvarez, who was never interested, and Vini jr. Who used us to cement his new contract.
The position we absolutely needed was LW, and all we did was bring in Tzolis as a backup. Thinking Eze or Madueke were LW solutions is fanciful at best.
Unfortunately, I expect more sputtering from our attack, based on what we have going.
Havertz is a coin flip chance whether he scores or not, Saka is continuing last year’s dreadful form, Gyokeres looks one foot out the door, Tzolis can only play at the Emirates.
Let’s see how we rebound; changes in selections or tactics, or repeat lineups and double down on tactics and expect different results.
Attack is the best form of defense. This team has one of the worst attacks in Europe, and the manager seems to have favorites.
Zubimendi, Merino, when you need a goal, it is insanity.
Havertz will never change, and at 280 k, he needs to be gone.
Saka is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about. He has been woeful for 2 years at 300k, which is a disgrace, and we have been papering over the cracks.
Tsolis is a backup player, and he is being put to the sword.
Odeegard had a bad game, but Arteta will never take him off and play Eze in that role, but he will keep damaging him at the LW.
You can’t criticize a winning manager, but Arteta doesn’t want to change his faults.
Looking at the recent history, the clubs which retained the title (Man utd of the great Alex Ferguson, Chelsea of the great Jose Mourinho and Man city of the great Pep Guardiola) all worked harder than the previous seasons.
We are still the best team in the league but we should not expect to show up and get the points.
Havertz as a striker experiment has failed. He will score occasionally some important goals and other less so but he will never be the man to lead the line. The spoonfed manager has to adjust his tactics to accommodate Gyokeres strengths.
I don’t see any threat to our throne yet but we are still required to do the hard work.
Haverz is not a striker, most can see that.
We need the gap to be no more than 3 or 4 points otherwise City could go on a run and extend it further, on the other hand we are still capable of going on a strong winning run and could easily beat City over 2 games if we’re on top form, it’s not an impossible task, Saturday was a big wake up call and hopefully Arteta sorts things out before the Leeds game, I’m not panicking just yet, long season ahead with plenty of twists and turns.