Arsenal suddenly fell back to earth. Undefeated for seven games in all competitions and still without defeat in the Premier League this season, the Gunners collapsed on the Brighton pitch (3-0). Gross and Kostoulas had already put the Seagulls in an excellent position before the break, before Andres completed the display in the second half. We have to go back to April and a defeat against Manchester City to find traces of Arsenal’s previous setback in the league.
A performance which angered Mikel Arteta. “Extremely disappointed, but first and foremost I think Brighton should be congratulated on their victory. They deserve it, they were the best team”recognized the Spanish technician after the meeting. “Brighton were way above us. There are certain fundamentals that must be respected in the Premier League and we were very far from them. The number of technical errors we made… we didn’t respect any principles of play. We were always on the defensive. They had another edge”regretted Arteta.
Mikel Arteta calls for remobilization after the break
The 44-year-old technician quickly understood that his team was missing out. “From the first throw-in, you could feel it, it was so obvious. We got ourselves into trouble once, twice, three times, and we need to get out of it a lot faster.”he explained. An observation shared in the locker room by Bruno Guimarães: “I think today is a day to forget. Everything we tried failed. Well done to Brighton too, but we can’t accept that here”railed the midfielder.
Arteta now wants to make this slap a warning for the rest of the season. “It’s a big lesson for us. What the team has accomplished since the World Cup is remarkable. But today there is still a lot to learn”he added. The international break therefore comes at the right time for Arsenal, who will have to react before getting serious.
