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Brighton and Hove Albion's Pascal Gross (right) celebrates scoring their side's first goal of the game during the Premier League match against Arsenal at Vitality Stadium, Brighton, on September 19 2026.
Arsenal slumped to a first loss of its Premier League title defence — and it was a heavy one at Brighton.
After four straight wins for the champions, the 3-0 defeat at Amex Stadium yesterday came somewhat out of nowhere, and conceding the third goal from a corner — typically an area of strength for the Gunners — summed up an unusually sloppy performance from Mikel Arteta’s team.
Pascal Gross and Charalampos Kostoulas scored in the first half with shots from outside the penalty area, before Chema Andrés completed the win with a header at the back post from Gross’s corner.
The victory will have been especially sweet for Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler, who said “only one team tried to play football”, after his team’s narrow home loss to Arsenal last season.
Arsenal has often struggled against Brighton, which was the last team to inflict such a heavy defeat on the Gunners in any competition — winning 3-0 at Emirates Stadium in May 2023.
It completed a brilliant week for Brighton, which beat Coventry 5-0 in the league last weekend and came from two goals down in midweek to beat Manchester United 3-2 away in the English League Cup.
Manchester City — the other team to win its first four games — can now move three points clear in the standings by beating Sunderland today.
Fresh off a $400m (R6.5bn) summer spend, Tottenham remains without a win in five league games this season after losing 3-2 at home to Aston Villa.
Johan Manzambi, a 20-year-old attacking midfielder who starred for Switzerland at the World Cup, made his first start for Villa and scored the opening goal against the run of play in first-half stoppage time.
He set up another for fellow new signing Nicolas Jackson before Emi Buendía’s long-range strike in the 79th minute sent Villa on its way to a first league win of the campaign.
Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke grabbed late goals for Spurs — their first league goals of the season — but it is now three defeats and two draws in the league for Roberto De Zerbi’s team, which also lost in the English League Cup this week.
After back-to-back 17th-place finishes in the 20-team Premier League, Tottenham’s leadership oversaw a huge squad rebuild in the off-season as a show of confidence in De Zerbi.
There’s been no payback so far in terms of results and De Zerbi — a combustible Italian coach — is under growing pressure heading into a long international break.
To make matters worse for Tottenham, Spain’s World Cup-winning right-back Pedro Porro was forced off midway through the first half with an injury.
In other games, fast starts helped Newcastle and Everton claim wins over promoted teams. Newcastle scored twice in the first seven minutes — through Lewis Hall and Joe Willock — to set up a 2-1 victory over previously unbeaten Hull.
Thierno Barry’s 11th-minute goal was enough for Everton to beat Ipswich 1-0.
AP