Brighton tore into Arsenal on Saturday and beat them 3-0, a margin of victory that seriously flattered the beaten holders. On a special day on the south coast, the Seagulls marked their 125th anniversary by wearing vintage azzurri blue shirts, and it is hard to imagine they have played better since the club was founded in 1901. They swarmed around Arsenal with a scrupulously organised chaos, and by the final whistle the three-goal gap looked generous to the visitors rather than flattering to the winners.
Mikel Arteta did not attempt to dress the afternoon up. “Extremely disappointed,” was his immediate verdict. “But first I think we have to congratulate Brighton for the victory. I think they deserve it, I think they were the better team.” For a head coach unaccustomed to losing, the timing could hardly be worse. The defeat arrived on the weekend before an international break, with the vast majority of his squad scattering across the world and no opportunity to put things right quickly on a training pitch.
The break itself is set to be the first lull of the season and longer than any that has come before it, leaving Arteta around 19 days — three weeks — to sit with the result before his players return. That is a long stretch for a meticulous perfectionist to spend replaying a defeat, whether at the tactics board or on the training ground, and the manner of the loss at Brighton gives him plenty to work through.
Fabian Hürzeler, meanwhile, can enjoy the pause. The Brighton head coach used the occasion to pay tribute to the club he now leads. “I want to say congratulations to this special club for the history, for everyone who has contributed in the past, for everyone who’s contributing in the present,” he said. “I think the history of this club is very impressive and hopefully everyone can enjoy who has been a part of our journey so far.” He went further still, saying he considered Saturday’s performance more important than the result itself — a distinction his opposite number will be treating with equal significance over the coming weeks.
The anniversary celebrations framed a club with a deep past and a distinctly modern present. Brighton’s sides of the early newsreel years were peopled by figures such as Peter Ward, Johnny Crumplin and a headband-wearing Steve Foster, while the current lineup carries a far more cosmopolitan feel, with the likes of Charalampos Kostoulas, Luka Vuskovic and Diego Gómez on the books. For one afternoon at least, the old and the new were on the same page, and Arsenal were on the wrong end of it.