Arteta calls 3-0 Brighton loss Arsenal's 'big lesson'

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Arsenal's unbeaten start to the Premier League season ended at the Amex on Saturday, with Brighton running out 3-0 winners in a game the champions never got to grips with.

It was Arsenal's first league defeat of the campaign, arriving after a seven-match winning run in all competitions and a sequence of nine successive league victories stretching back to April. It is also the club's heaviest defeat in a season as reigning top-flight champions since 1989.

Mikel Arteta did not dispute the outcome, saying Brighton "deserved" the win and describing himself as "extremely disappointed" with a display that fell "very far" from the basics he demands.

Duels lost, control surrendered

Physicality and duel-winning have been central to Arteta's message since he took charge in 2019. At the Amex, Arsenal lost those battles repeatedly.

"Well, the first one because Brighton they were really good, and they had another bite, and at the times it was better," Arteta said. "There are a lot of moments when the ball is 50-50 and it changes hands and most of the time it was for them."

He added: "Sometimes there were some technical errors very much involved that opened us up in a really difficult way, but that's something to learn."

The numbers underline how out of character the afternoon was. Arsenal conceded fewer goals than any side in the Premier League last season and had shipped just one in their opening four league games this term before David Raya was beaten three times in a single afternoon. Brighton, now third, are the division's top scorers with 16 goals, eight of them in the past week alone.

Two down at half-time, Arsenal never looked like recovering — the Gunners have not come from 2-0 behind to win a league match since March 2008 at Bolton.

Pundits: 'They absolutely battered Arsenal'

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Alan Shearer said the scoreline flattered the visitors. "It should have been more, the chances Brighton created, they were that good," he said. "They absolutely battered Arsenal. From start to finish today Brighton were magnificent, every single one of them played their part. It should have been six or seven goals."

Former Premier League defender Curtis Davies framed it as a one-off on the same broadcast. "Their form this season has so far been good, this has been a really shocking performance," he said. "That defence today was nowhere near what it's used to being."

Arteta was keen to keep the result in context, pointing to the 15 Arsenal players who were at the World Cup and consequently returned for pre-season later than their team-mates.

"That's not going to take away what the team has done and the boys have done in the last six or seven weeks since coming back from the World Cup," he said. "What we've done and the way we've competed and the amount of games we've won has been remarkable, but this is a big lesson for all of us to understand what it takes to win at this level."

The international break now gives Arteta time to work through the issues before Arsenal return to league action, with roughly £200m of summer investment still expected to push the champions towards back-to-back titles. Full coverage of the defeat is available via the BBC.