Arsenal suffered their first defeat of the season on Saturday when they were beaten by a strong Brighton side at the Amex Stadium.
Pascal Groß opened the scoring, Charalampos Kostoulas doubled the lead before half-time and Chema Andres added another early in the second half to give the Seagulls a deserved win.
Statistics | brighton | arsenal |
|---|---|---|
have | 40.1% | 59.9% |
xG | 1.3 | 1.58 |
lens | No. 17 | 11 |
hit the target | 5 | 2 |
Touch the ball in the opposition zone | 30 | 36 |
It brought Arsenal’s perfect start to the season to a screeching halt and left them second behind Manchester City ahead of the international break, with Mikel Arteta not shying away from the scale of the post-match defeat.
“Very disappointed. But first of all I think we have to congratulate Brighton for the win. I think they deserved it and I think they are the better team,” he said.
“From our side there are some fundamentals in football that need to be done, especially in the Premier League where we are so far away. Winning the first duel, the second goal, it makes the game even more exciting, especially how direct they were in a very difficult place for us.”
“The most important thing is, especially in our own half, we didn’t respect any of the principles of the game to get out of the man-marking situation. It put us at a disadvantage, so it was difficult to control the game.
“We did open things up for them when we had moments of dominance and control, but we didn’t finish those moves with the quality we needed to make up for the things we did wrong. So overall, they should have won the game and that’s a big lesson for us.”
The result reignited frustration among Arsenal fans over the club’s lack of early business in the summer transfer window, as the Gunners failed to further add to their attacking ranks following the signing of Christos Zolis.
How much do Arsenal forwards earn? | ||
|---|---|---|
player | weekly salary | contract expires |
Bukayo Saka | £300,000 | June 30, 2030 |
Kai Havertz | £280,000 | June 30, 2028 |
Victor Jockles | £200,000 | June 30, 2030 |
Yo Marduk | £150,000 | June 30, 2030 |
Christo Zolis | £90,000 | June 30, 2031 |
Ethan Nwaneri | £80,000 | June 30, 2030 |
Andrea Berta and Co are reportedly keeping an eye on potential January options such as Kevin Sande and Eli Junior Crupi to bolster Arteta’s forward options, but there could also be changes in defence, with Ben White having long been linked with an exit.
Arsenal battles with Liverpool for five-assist star
According to TEAMTalk, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City are all interested in Feyenoord’s Givaro Reed and have been keeping a close eye on the Dutch right-back for several months.
Reid has provided five assists in seven Eredivisie games so far this season and Premier League scouts have been impressed with what they have seen, particularly his playmaking ability out wide.
They will also be keeping an eye on his time with the Netherlands Under-21s during the international break and European Championship qualifiers against Norway, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Liverpool have their own issues at right-back, with Jeremy Frimpong out of form and Ronald Araujo being shoehorned into the full-back spot, and are thought to be considering a January move to stay ahead of their rivals, so Berta may need to act quickly when the winter window opens.
However, the current focus is on the domestic response. Arteta was quick to stress that there are no quick fixes for Arsenal once the holidays are over, admitting there will be no easy games: “That’s very clear to us. When we talked for two days, we knew what we had to do here.
“We’re playing our fourth away game in a short space of time and we know what it takes to win every game. We know what it takes to beat Leeds when we come back.”
Arsenal host Leeds United after the international break, with Daniel Farke’s side one of the toughest teams to play against in the league so far this season, having conceded just three goals in total in their first five games without losing any of them.