'No secret' to Brighton hammering of off-form Gunners

The champions were well beaten by a rampant Seagulls side on Saturday

Arsenal's Declan Rice during the Premier League match at the Amex. Pic: Gareth Fuller/PA

Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen claimed after the 3-0 victory against Arsenal that there was “no secret” to his club’s rampaging win over the previously unbeaten Premier League champions, who had conceded only one league goal before Saturday. So why doesn’t everyone do it?

Arsenal, remember, travelled to the Amex looking for a 10th successive Premier League win, a run during which they also beat Atletico Madrid in the Champions League and Manchester City in the Community Shield as extras, not to mention holding Paris Saint-Germain over 120 minutes in the Champions League final – some decent teams in there.

“Every day in training, we just try to continue to improve every single day when we are there,” he said. “Try and always be positive but never satisfied. There's no secret, it's just hard work and dedication and today was a day where we got rewarded.” If only it were as simple as the Netherlands goalkeeper makes it sound. First of all, Arsenal have to have an off day, and the Gunners most definitely had one in Sussex.

Twice, pairs of defenders uncharacteristically backed off to allow first Pascal Gross and then Charalampos Kostoulas to beat David Raya from distance, when the Arsenal norm is to defend aggressively. William Saliba’s return from his back injury cannot come too soon.

Saliba’s absence was also felt at Brighton’s third goal, Arsenal’s usually efficient blocking at set plays failing as Chema Andres, on his first Premier League start after joining Brighton from Stuttgart on transfer deadline day, powered a free header down and in off a post.

“A lot of things we work on got shown today,” Verbruggen said. “If you can win the set-piece game against Arsenal and we score one and don't concede one, it's not so easy. They've been the best at it for a couple of years now. To be able to win that ‘game inside of the game’ makes us very happy.” 

There was also Brighton’s relentless pressing. Some have suggested that it has worked so well for Hurzeler’s men this season because 35-year-old Danny Welbeck has been replaced as Brighton’s main striker by 19-year-old Kostoulas, but 35-year-old Gross is an intrinsic and enthusiastic participant.

For the press to work so well and so often, everyone has to buy in, and supporters of many other teams can probably name players in their colours who might not fancy it so much as Gross, Diego Gomez, Yasin Ayari and the rest.

“You have to be intense,” Sweden midfielder Ayari said. “You have to be aggressive against teams like this if you want to win. If you give them too much time and they feel comfortable playing, then it’s going to be hard.

“And to play the way we played today, you have to be fit. We emphasise this every day and we train hard to be able to play like this. I think the culture at the club is that everyone knows the standards they need to meet. When we started this summer, everyone was fit and had been doing their training.” 

And of course, it helps to have a recruitment department like Brighton’s. For every £30m (€35m) Kostoulas and £44m (€51m) Luka Vuskovic, there is a £3.5m (€4.1m) Ayari or a £1.5m (€1.75m) Gross, while Andres (£15.5m/€18.1m), Gomez (£11m/€12.8m) and Maxim de Cuyper (£17.5m/€20.4m) hardly broke the bank by Premier League standards. The display of Andres – dubbed the new Rodri by some – ensured that nobody was talking about the departure of Carlos Baleba to Manchester United for £70m (€81.6m).

Arsenal’s recently-acquired Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimaraes (a relatively eye-watering £75m/€88m) hopes that this was a wake-up call rather than a first visible chink in the champions’ armour. And that the squad will regroup after the extended international break.

“We were far away off our level,” he said. “We were too sloppy with the ball, didn't win any duels. We cannot accept this while wearing this shirt of a champion.

“It's a lesson for us because I think we've been on a good run so far. We've won every game but we have to learn from what happened today. Now we have to focus on the national teams but when we come back, we have to ensure this does not happen again.

“Everything we tried didn't work, the first and second balls, we were not there. Credit to Brighton, but we gave them too much time on the ball, we know the quality that they have. I've not been too long here but it feels like we can't accept [this]. We have to say sorry to the fans because it wasn't good enough.” 

Brighton & Hove Albion (4-2-3-1): Verbruggen 6; Kadioglu 6 (Costinha 77), Vuskovic 8, Struijk 7 (Svoboda 86), Boscagli 7; Gross 8, Chema 7 (O’Riley 86); Gomez 7 (Yalcouye 86), Ayari 7, De Cuyper 7; Kostoulas 7 (Rutter 77).

Booked: Kostoulas, Kadioglu, Struijk.

Arsenal (4-1-4-1): Raya 6; Timber 6, Konsa 5, Gabriel 6, Calafiori 5; Rice 6; Saka 6 (Dowman 81), Odegaard 6 (Gyokeres 73), Guimaraes 5 (Merino 60), Tzolis 5 (Eze 73); Havertz 6.

Referee: Darren England.