Brighton 3-0 Arsenal: the first defeat of Arsenal’s season

Brighton and Hove Albion 3-0 Arsenal ended the only perfect record left in the Premier League. Arsenal had won all four of their opening matches and conceded once. At the Amex on Saturday they conceded three: Pascal Gross on thirty-one minutes, Charalampos Kostoulas on forty-five and Chema Andres, with a header, on fifty-seven.

Arsenal had 59.8% of the ball and eleven shots, two of them on target. Brighton had seventeen attempts and five on target, and three of those five were goals. It is the second time this season Brighton have scored at least three against a side that came in unbeaten.

Gross and Kostoulas, either side of half time

The first arrived on thirty-one minutes, with Kostoulas setting up Gross for a right-footed finish. Two minutes later Kostoulas was booked, and on the stroke of half time he scored himself, assisted by Diego Gomez. Arsenal went in two down having had most of the ball and one shot on target.

There was another booking for Brighton in first-half stoppage time, Ferdi Kadioglu for a bad foul. It set the tone for a bad-tempered afternoon in which Brighton finished with four yellow cards to Arsenal’s one, and that one went to Declan Rice in the seventh minute of stoppage time.

Chema Andres heads the third

Any hope of an Arsenal response lasted twelve minutes into the second half. Gross, who had scored the first, crossed for Chema Andres to head the third on fifty-seven. At 3-0 with more than half an hour left, a side that had conceded a single goal in four matches had conceded three in fifty-seven minutes.

Pascal Struijk was booked on seventy-one and Maxim De Cuyper in the first minute of added time. Darren England refereed in front of 31,944.

• Pascal Gross (Brighton), 31 minutes: right-footed, assisted by Charalampos Kostoulas
• Charalampos Kostoulas (Brighton), 45 minutes: right-footed, assisted by Diego Gomez
• Chema Andres (Brighton), 57 minutes: header, assisted by Pascal Gross
• Shots: Brighton 17 (5 on target), Arsenal 11 (2 on target)
• Possession: Brighton 40.2%, Arsenal 59.8%
• Cards: Brighton 4 yellow, Arsenal 1 yellow

Sixteen goals in five matches

Brighton have scored sixteen goals in five league matches, more than anyone else in the division, and it is the range of the scorelines that stands out: 4-0 against Aston Villa, 4-3 lost at Chelsea, 1-1 with Leeds, 5-0 at Coventry and now 3-0 against Arsenal. Ten points from five, with one defeat, and that defeat came in a match in which they scored three.

Arsenal keep twelve points from five and have still conceded only four goals all season, three of which came on Saturday. Before this they had beaten Coventry 3-0, won at Aston Villa 1-0, beaten Chelsea 2-1 and won 2-0 at Sunderland. The pattern of those four was a tight, controlled win; this was the first afternoon in which the control produced nothing.

Two shots on target from 60% of the ball is the number that will bother Mikel Arteta most. Brighton let them have it and then hit them with five efforts that mattered.

Brighton keep playing without the ball

This is a habit now rather than an afternoon. Brighton have had less possession than their opponent in four of their five matches and they have sixteen goals. They beat Aston Villa 4-0, won 5-0 at Coventry, and have now beaten a side that had conceded once all season by three. The only match they have lost is the one with the most goals in it, 4-3 at Chelsea.

Their conversion is what makes it work. Seventeen shots and five on target sounds wasteful until you notice that three of the five were goals. Across the season they have scored sixteen times from a shot volume that is nowhere near the highest in the division, and no other club has scored more than ten.

Arsenal have not had a bad season; they have had one bad afternoon. Twelve points from five, four goals conceded in total, and a first defeat that arrived in the single match where their opponent declined to contest the ball at all.

Simulate the rest of the Premier League season

Brighton have scored more than anyone and lost to Chelsea by the odd goal in seven. Arsenal have conceded four goals in five matches and three of them came here. On the Premier League simulator you can play the rest of the season out from the real table.

• Play the remaining 33 rounds from the real table and the real fixture list
• Run any fixture through the AI match simulator, in tactical view or in the physics arena
• Open the line-up builder for both clubs before you kick off a simulation
• Turn an arena simulation into a vertical video ready to share

"Arsenal had conceded one goal in four matches. They conceded three in fifty-seven minutes at the Amex."