Four **Premier League** matches. Four victories.
Seven matches in all competitions. Seven victories.
For all the discussion surrounding how **Arsenal** would respond to finally becoming champions, **Mikel Arteta’s** side have provided a fairly uncomplicated answer so far.
They have simply kept winning.
Saturday afternoon, however, presents something different.
[**Brighton & Hove Albion welcome the champions to the Amex Stadium**](https://www.vavel.com/en/football/2026/09/18/arsenal/1271926-brighton-vs-arsenal-premier-league-matchweek-5-preview.html) having emerged as the most prolific attacking side in the **Premier League**, scoring **13 goals in four matches**.
Their latest league outing was the most emphatic evidence yet: a **5-0 victory over Coventry City**.
At the other end stands an **Arsenal** side whose defensive control has become one of its defining qualities.
Something has to give on the south coast.
And for **Arteta**, this may be the most revealing examination yet of whether the champions can impose themselves on opponents determined to do exactly the same thing.
**Arsenal cannot simply control the ball**
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There is something refreshingly awkward about playing **Brighton**.
**Fabian Hürzeler’s** side aren’t likely to spend Saturday afternoon treating the champions with excessive reverence.
They want the ball.
They want territory.
And, crucially, they are willing to commit numbers forward in pursuit of both.
That changes the problem facing **Arsenal**.
Against deeper opposition, **Martin Ødegaard**, **Bruno Guimarães** and **Declan Rice** can spend extended periods manipulating defensive structures while **Bukayo Saka** and **Christos Tzolis** attack from wide areas.
Against **Brighton**, there should be space elsewhere.
The challenge becomes recognising it quickly enough.
Winning possession against an aggressive team means very little if the first instinct is always to slow the match down and reconstruct the positional attack.
Sometimes control means keeping the ball.
Sometimes control means recognising when not to.
**Arsenal’s** ability to accelerate through **Brighton’s** pressure could therefore become every bit as important as their ability to dominate possession.
**A different test for the champions’ defence**
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**Brighton’s 13 league goals** make the headline obvious.
The more interesting question is how **Arsenal** prevent number **14**.
**Arteta’s** defensive structure has been tested in different ways already this season, but few opponents have entered a meeting with the champions carrying this degree of attacking momentum.
That challenge is complicated by uncertainty in defence.
**William Saliba** remains unavailable with a back injury, while **Jurrien Timber**, **Ben White**, **Cristhian Mosquera** and **Piero Hincapié** have all required assessment ahead of the trip. **Arteta** said on Friday that several would need to be evaluated following the final training session.
It places even greater importance on the structure surrounding whoever starts.
Defending **Brighton** cannot simply become a succession of individual duels.
If **Arsenal’s** midfield pressure is bypassed too easily, the defensive line will repeatedly be asked to solve problems it should never have been presented with.
The champions have built their defensive reputation collectively.
Saturday is precisely the kind of afternoon on which they will need to defend collectively again.
**Space may be Arsenal’s greatest opportunity**
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There is, of course, another side to **Brighton’s** ambition.
Teams cannot commit players forward without leaving something behind.
And this **Arsenal** side now possesses several different ways of exploiting exactly that.
**Saka** remains devastating when isolated.
**Tzolis** offers directness from the opposite flank.
**Ødegaard** can find the pass between defensive lines.
And **Rice** and **Guimarães** give **Arsenal** the ability to turn a defensive recovery into an attack before their opponent has properly reorganised.
That could make Saturday considerably different from the games in which **Arsenal** are asked to spend an afternoon picking locks.
**Brighton** may occasionally leave the door open themselves.
The important thing is that **Arsenal** recognise those moments.
There is little value in winning the transition if the ball subsequently travels sideways three times and allows **Brighton** to rebuild their shape.
The champions don’t need to abandon control.
They may simply need to redefine what control looks like.
**The Amex no longer holds the same fear**
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There was a period when **Brighton** represented something of an awkward opponent for **Arsenal**.
That balance has shifted.
**Arsenal** are unbeaten in their previous **six Premier League visits to the Amex**, winning **four** and drawing **two**. They have also won **four of the previous six league meetings** between the clubs.
That doesn’t make Saturday straightforward.
If anything, this version of **Brighton** provides a more interesting challenge than the historical record suggests.
But it does demonstrate how far **Arteta’s** team have travelled.
Trips to the south coast are no longer approached as fixtures in which **Arsenal** merely hope to survive **Brighton’s** intensity.
The expectation now is that the champions impose their own.
**Arteta** made that mentality clear before the match, saying his side must demonstrate their dominance regardless of whether they are playing home or away.
That is the standard attached to champions.
**Eight from eight would mean something**
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It is September.
Nobody wins the **Premier League** in September.
But habits can be established remarkably early.
Victory at the **Amex** would give **Arsenal eight consecutive wins across all competitions** to begin the campaign and equal a club record for the best start to a season, one that has stood for **123 years**.
More importantly, it would represent another answer.
Could **Arsenal** handle becoming champions?
So far, yes.
Could they reproduce their standards away from the **Emirates Stadium**?
Wins at **Napoli**, **Sunderland** and **Ipswich Town** suggest so.
Now comes another question.
Can the league’s strongest defensive structure contain its most explosive attack without sacrificing the ambition that has taken **Arsenal** to the summit themselves?
That is what makes Saturday fascinating.
**Brighton** will not want to spend **90 minutes** admiring the champions.
They will want to attack them.
For **Arsenal**, the response should not be retreat.
It should be to attack back.