Arsenal head coach, Mikel Arteta, has come out to congratulate Brighton and Hove Albion after his side’s 100% start to the new season was shattered in the top flight match on Saturday.
The Spaniard could only watch as Brighton tore Arsenal to pieces, with a 3-0 thump, in the Premier League 2026/27 game at American Express (AMEX) Stadium on Saturday 19 September, 2026.
Reacting to the humiliation, the former Gunners midfielder said, he is “extremely disappointed” with how his side performed against their hosts, tagging the Seagulls as the “better team”.
The defending champions hardly launched any major threat at Brighton in the contest as they failed to hit the back of the net when they had their “moments of dominance and control”.
The Spanish pro football manager confessed, he was aware prior to the game the kind of “difficulty” he would face when he collides with the Seagulls as he went ahead to give Brighton the “credit” for “overcoming” his side.
Brighton were able to down Arsenal on Saturday afternoon because they took their time to “open us up in a really difficult way”, and that is a “big lesson” for the Gunners.
Arteta told arsenal.com, the combination of Declan Rice and Bruno Guimaraes in the midfield helped the Gunners to emerge victorious in the top flight clash against Sunderland 2-0 at the Stadium of Light.
At his post-defeat press conference, Arteta said:
On his feeling after the loss…
“Extremely disappointed. But first I think we have to congratulate Brighton for the victory. I think they deserve it, I think they were the better team.
“From our side, there were certain basics you need to accomplish in football…we didn’t respect any of the principles of play to get out of that man-to-man situation.
“When we had moments of dominance and control, we did open them up, but we didn’t finish those actions with the quality that is required to compensate for the things we did wrong.”
On how tough Premier League games are…
“I think we knew how difficult it was going to be today. Credit to them for overcoming us and having another edge to what we did
On why the performance was unlike the Gunners…
“Firstly, because Brighton were really good. They opened us up in a really difficult way, that’s something to learn.
“That’s not going to take away what this team has done, and what the boys have done in the last six or seven weeks…But this is a big lesson on what it takes to win at this level.”
On his observation early in the game…
“You could see from the first throw-in, it was so clear. We put ourselves in trouble one, two, three times. We need to get out much quicker than that, and that’s one of the biggest lessons we have to take from the game today.”
On the idea of combining Declan Rice and Bruno Guimaraes in the midfield on long-term…
“It’s one of them, and it worked extremely well when we played Sunderland away and managed to win the game, and today it didn’t work so well.
“…they’ve only played together a few minutes in these early stages, and that relationship will for sure improve and give us a lot of joy.”
On his thoughts when the goals started pouring in…
“Ways to be able to change it. When you get into those moments, it’s extremely difficult to be able to change it. By the time we got some momentum, it was probably too late.”
Premier League goes for a break
The English Premier League (EPL) will embark on a three-week holiday for the international football break which will kick off on Monday 21 September and conclude on Tuesday 6 October, 2026.
Premier League action returns on Saturday 10 October, 2026.
