Arsenal suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season as Brighton punished a performance Arteta admitted fell well below the required level.
Mikel Arteta admitted he could tell from the “first throw-in” that Arsenal were in trouble during their 3-0 defeat at Brighton.
The Gunners arrived on the south coast with a perfect record, having won their opening four Premier League games, whilst conceding just one goal in the process, but they rarely looked like the side which had started the season so strongly.
Arteta believes he didn’t need long to see the warning signs. Asked afterwards whether he had sensed early in the game that something was wrong, he pointed all the way back to its opening moments.
“From the first throw-in you could sense it,” Arteta said. “It was so clear.
“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.”
Arteta had spent the build-up talking to his players about the physical battle Brighton would present and what Arsenal needed to do to play through it. Instead, he watched his side lose too many of the early contests, which dictated where the game was being played.
Brighton went direct, competed for the second ball and repeatedly came out on top. When Arsenal did regain possession in their own half, their problems often continued.
“There were certain basics that you need to accomplish in football, especially in the Premier League, that we were very far from,” Arteta said.
“Winning the first duel, every second ball, that put the game, especially how direct they were, in a really difficult place for us.
“On top of that, when we did regain, especially in our own half, the amount of technical errors that we did and we didn’t respect any principle of play that you have to get out of that man-to-man situation. So that put us always on the back foot.”
Arsenal did have periods when they managed to settle the game and find spaces against Brighton’s approach. Arteta felt they opened the hosts up during some of those spells, but the final passes and shots were not good enough to compensate for what went wrong elsewhere
Brighton had what Arteta described as another “bite” in the duels, with too many of the 50-50 situations going their way for his liking. Some were simply physical contests, while Arsenal made their own mistakes to make it easier for The Seagulls.
“When we started to get more control and more dominance, then we did another action that gave them belief and momentum again,” Arteta said. “And when you get into those moments, it’s extremely difficult to change it.”
Arteta considered making changes at half-time with Arsenal already two goals behind, but decided the alterations he wanted from his team did not require an immediate personnel change.
The second half did not bring the response he wanted, Arsenal again made “two or three really difficult decisions” which left them under pressure before Brighton scored their third, and Arteta felt the point at which his side finally threatened to build some momentum came too late.
It was an unusually poor afternoon for a team whose performances since returning from the start of the season had given Arteta little reason for complaint.
He was careful not to allow one defeat to wipe away that work. Arsenal continued winning through a demanding run of matches, something Arteta described as “remarkable”.
Arteta felt Brighton had the edge Arsenal lacked in the opening exchanges, and the problems he identified before the game kept returning whenever his side threatened to gain control.
“We knew how tough it was going to be today,” Arteta said. “If you don’t get out of that first phase as winners, it will be extremely difficult to dominate the game and to have any probability of winning the game.
By the time Arsenal began to find any sustained momentum, the damage had already been done. What concerned Arteta most was that he had seen the warning signs almost immediately.
