Mikel Arteta admitted that he knew early on his Arsenal side were in trouble
Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal, appears dejected during the Premier League 2026/27 match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Arsenal FC
Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal, appears dejected during the Premier League 2026/27 match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Arsenal FC
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(Image: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Where to start… A result that, while many felt could have fallen the home side’s way with the impressive form Brighton have shown this season, very few, if any, would have foreseen Arsenal conceding three goals.
It is often said you can determine the outcome of an Arsenal match within the first few minutes. The tone of the game, the feel you get when the players play their first few passes and how encouraged the opposition are.
This was a great example of that very theory, as the home side were pinning Arsenal back into their own box time and time again, forcing mistakes and eventually finding the net with two excellent goals.
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Arteta was even asked after the game about the sense that early on it felt like the pattern was set. The Arsenal manager took it one step further that he could tell from one of the opening actions things were not right.
“From the first throw-in you could sense it, it was so clear,” he said. “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 today.”
Brighton’s three goals came from 1.46 expected goals, which shows you just how special they were, and that might be some respite from Arteta’s perspective. But the reality was that even if the home side had scored just one, they were so incredibly superior that it left Arteta frozen, at least that’s what it looked like from the sidelines.
I dedicated much of the final 20 minutes to regularly checking on Arteta's position as his side tried, in an incredibly inefficient manner, to find a way back into the game. He was unmoved, statue-esque, seemingly out of ideas as to how he could foresee his team getting back into it.
Brighton have handed all of Arsenal’s opponents a clear blueprint of how to beat them. Energy, desire, and drive – give the defence no time on the ball and fracture the midfield, leaving huge spaces to exploit.
Bruno Guimaraes and Declan Rice have never started a game together, and today it showed. While Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori, despite being very familiar with one another, played as though they rarely had, and it was clear that a breakdown in communications was happening all over the field.
“It was one of them and it worked extremely well when we played Sunderland away and we managed to win the game and today it didn't work so well for a lot of things that happened as well behind them to make sure that they could play a completely different game,” Arteta said about the pair’s partnership. “That's something that for sure it will evolve.
“It's in it's early stages, they only play together a few minutes and that relationship will for sure improve and give us a lot of joy.”
Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard, who had looked so good at the start of the season dropped two of the most ineffective displays of their seasons so far. The German had a great chance to make it 3-1 and perhaps give his side some hope, but there was nothing composed about the attempt, which summed up the afternoon rather aptly.
Christos Tzolis kept on trying to find ways into the Brighton box and played some speculative balls into the area, but again, lacked a teammate to be on the end of it. Yet more examples of how nothing would click for this team.
Arsenal had been labelled as clear favourites before the season started and after their opening four wins, that had not changed, and this game likely still will not see those odds shift, Man City have the chance to move three points clear when they host Sunderland on Sunday afternoon.
“For us it's crystal clear,” Arteta said when asked about the narrative that the Gunners would win the league at a canter and that it was simply never the case. “We knew and we talked for two days what we have to do here. We play the fourth away game 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 for sure not a surprise, but it doesn't take away the disappointment and emotional state that we have right now.”
Aston Villa, Sunderland and Brighton represent three of the toughest trips a side can make in the Premier League and the bigger picture says to take a step back and see that two wins from three in these games is a positive. But with this coming in the manner it has, it leaves Arsenal reeling and many questions needing to be answered with a whole three weeks before they get the chance to tackle them.
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