Brighton 3-0 Arsenal: Bad Day at the Office

After four assured wins in a row, Arsenal lost, and it’s not the result that upsets me the most but the manner in which it happened.

On paper, we had our best available starting XI, with Timber and Guimarães both starting. Not gonna lie, I was eager to see the Guimarães–Rice–Ødegaard midfield, and so, it seems, was Mikel.

Right from the start, Brighton put us under heavy pressure, going man for man and not giving our players enough time to assess their options and build up properly. We needed to be much quicker in our thinking and movement, but this game showed that Bruno simply didn’t have the legs to recover. That led to both home goals being scored in a very similar manner and under similar circumstances: we lose the ball, there’s no cover from the midfielders, bizarre positioning from the defenders, and a little bit of luck with the shots for the goalscorers.

Going forward, we weren’t any better either. We had our chances, but collectively our players had somehow “forgotten” how to do even the basics. And even when those chances came - one just before we conceded the second and Havertz’s one-on-one - we looked very, very far from being able to take them.

It had been a long time since we’d lost a Premier League game in this “completely off” mode. Guess what? The last time it happened, it was 0-3 against... Brighton, at home. These two games are almost copies of each other, as in both we looked similarly helpless and, most concerningly, outfought.

We were completely surprised by how intense and organised Brighton’s pressing was. And I can only wonder whether we’d have looked better with more press-resistant players like Merino and Miles on the pitch.

I’m kinda glad this happened so early in the season. During the game, I was wishing our next one was next week, but on the other hand, Mikel now has three weeks to think about how to fix this and address such a vulnerability.