Arsenal’s perfect start to the Premier League season came to an abrupt end on Saturday as they were beaten 3-0 at Brighton. Pascal Gross, Charalampos Kostoulas and Chema Andrés were the scorers as the home side rounded off what amounted to a comprehensive victory, with the champions second-best throughout.
The scale of the defeat is a rarity for Arsenal. Not since 10 May 2023 — 1,224 days earlier, when the same opponents won 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium — had the club lost a match by three goals.
Mikel Arteta made no attempt to dress up the performance. “They deserved to win the game and it’s a big lesson for us,” the Arsenal manager said, adding that his players had not been their usual combative selves. “From the first throw-in you could sense it, it was so clear.”
The problem, in Arteta’s view, was his team’s failure to cope with the opening phase of the contest. “We put ourselves in trouble one time, two times, three times and we need to get out of that much quicker than that. That’s one of the biggest lessons that we have to take from the game,” he said. “We knew how tough it was going to be and the first thing we had discussed was about the first part. If you don’t get out of that first part as winners, it will be extremely difficult to dominate the game and to have any probability of winning the game. At this level, it’s extremely important to respect and to understand [that] before anything else.”
Asked whether the loss served as a wake-up call after nine straight league wins that had included Arsenal being crowned champions for the first time in 22 years in May, Arteta said the situation was clear to him and his squad. He noted that the Brighton game was their fourth away fixture in a really short period of time. “We know what it takes to win every single match and we know what it’s going to take to win against Leeds when we come back. That’s not a surprise, but it doesn’t take away the disappointment and emotional state we have,” he said.
For Brighton, the result extended a notable run. They have now recorded victories over the reigning champions in each of the past three seasons and, with 16 goals from five matches, are all but certain to go into the international break as the division’s top scorers. Fabian Hürzeler described Gross, at 35, as being like “a good wine” after the midfielder’s instrumental role in the win, and praised his team’s collective effort. “Everyone has this mindset today: ‘I need to defend first and we defend as a team,'” the Brighton manager said. “We wanted to approach this game by getting small wins. Everyone speaks about a goal is a win, but a small win can be the first throw in, the first corner, win the first header, win the first tackle. If you win these small steps, if you celebrate them individually as a win then you can grow into the game. Then you can gain bigger and bigger wins.”