Arteta’s Arsenal lesson from Brighton 3-0 could shape what’s next

Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat to Brighton, coming right before the international break, left Mikel Arteta focused on one thing: the tactical risk the team is leaning into can backfire. After the loss, he said “Brighton were really good” and directly addressed what went wrong in the game.

Arteta’s post-match read was blunt. “You could see from the first throw-in, it was so clear. We put ourselves in trouble one, two, three times,” he said, adding: “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.”

BBC Sport links that message to Arsenal’s current structure in possession: a 3-1-6 shape with Declan Rice dropping deep alongside Ezri Konsa and Gabriel Magalhaes, and Myles Lewis-Skelly operating as the single pivot. The piece also points to how the Brighton game may have been harder when the holding role wasn’t filled by Lewis-Skelly, with Bruno Guimarães instead.