How Arteta's response to Brighton loss may shape Arsenal's next chapter

Taking over a side in need of new life in 2019, he won the FA Cup in his first season by playing a defensive style of football, unafraid of using a back five.

As time passed the Gunners played a free-flowing style of attacking football - best seen in 2022 - before creating a side that reduced the variance of a match, maximised control and became physically difficult to compete with.

Having finally won the Premier League title, Arteta is reinventing his side again.

Perhaps freed by having lifted the trophy, we have seen the Spaniard take more gambles in personnel and tactics.

But, while an increased appetite for risk means the wins can be greater - so can the losses.

"Brighton were really good," Mikel Arteta confessed after Arsenal's 3-0 defeat before the international break.

Fabian Hurzeler masterminded the dominant victory against the reigning champions - defiantly opting against a pragmatic approach.

It is rare Arsenal are totally outclassed, so the loss to Brighton left a lingering sense of uncertainty going into the extended break.

But, given the timing of the defeat, it has been easy to forget that Arteta's men had won every game prior to that this season.

So what can we make of Arsenal's new approach?

Last season, the heart of Arsenal had Martin Zubimendi at its base with Declan Rice in a more box-to-box role to the left of him.

Arsenal lost some momentum as the end of the season approached but it was the surprise use of Myles Lewis-Skelly in holding midfield that reinvigorated Arsenal, helping them over the line.

Arteta has since continued to trust the 20-year-old in that key role.

This season, Arsenal have used a 3-1-6 shape in possession, formed by Declan Rice dropping deep - rather than pushing on as he did in the first part of last season - to create a back three alongside Ezri Konsa and Gabriel Magalhaes.

Lewis-Skelly plays as the single pivot, linking the back part and the front part of the team.

To label the rest of the team a 'front six' is perhaps an oversimplification, given the more specific roles certain players have.

Riccardo Calafiori, Ben White and Martin Odegaard take turns to drop deep, becoming a fifth player to Arsenal's base in moments. These dynamic arrivals, that create a '3-2' or a '4-1' base, require an alertness and reaction from the opposition to track them that isn't always possible.

These movements to drop deep therefore help Arsenal outnumber opponents, play around them and get up the pitch.

In William Saliba's absence, Konsa is a capable ball-playing centre-back. Rice, however, possesses both the passing and carrying quality of a world-class midfielder.

Facing forward and with more time and space on the ball, using him here maximises many of his strengths and minimises the amount of time he spends in small spaces with back to goal - a relative weakness for a player of his frame.

Indispensable Lewis-Skelly thrives in new system

Lewis-Skelly has made that link position his own for reasons including his calmness under pressure, his hold-up strength, his ability to dribble past players one-v-one and his willingness to take risk - when deciding to dribble past a player or play direct passes for his attackers.

His effectiveness here has been noticed too by England boss Thomas Tuchel who, during this international break, has emulated Arteta's use of Lewis-Skelly.

For England it has been Elliot Anderson taking up the 'Declan Rice role' in the back three.

Given the demands of this role, part of the reason Arsenal may have struggled against Brighton was that Bruno Guimaraes took up this holding midfield position instead of Lewis-Skelly.

Hurzeler has drilled his Brighton side to play with high intensity, both on and off the ball. To play around their press requires superb technique, good positioning, the right timing of movements and an understanding of where team-mates may be.

These are things Guimaraes will get to grips with, given the time Lewis-Skelly has already had in this role, but being used in there against an effective Brighton man-to-man press was always going to be a difficult challenge.

Can other teams 'do a Brighton' on Arsenal?

Brighton's pressure meant Arsenal hesitated on the ball, forcing them to make decisions they normally wouldn't.

"You could see from the first throw-in, it was so clear. We put ourselves in trouble one, two, three times," Arteta said.

"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."

After playing looser passes, Arsenal, known for their duelling, were beaten by a Brighton side that swarmed around the ball.

When Brighton were pushed deeper, Arsenal might've expected that things would play out like most games do for them - with them dominating the ball in the opposition's third against a low block.

But Brighton had other plans.

From their settled defensive shape they picked moments to spring into a man-to-man press again - an effective solution that put Arteta's side under pressure throughout the match, preventing them from having an unmarked player to find.

Brighton prevailed because they created a game that was unfamiliar and unpredictable. Arsenal couldn't create the conditions they like to play out of.

If you are going to challenge Arsenal, this is the way to do so.

But, having seen how Brighton troubled his side, Arteta will be working to find solutions and make an unfamiliar challenge a more familiar one - as he did against Manchester City last season.

In last season's FA Cup final, Arsenal were caught out by a defensive tweak that led to City triumphing. Pep Guardiola opted for a zonal 4-2-4 shape that let Arsenal's defenders keep the ball but blocked access through the middle of the pitch.

City's new boss Enzo Maresca, knowing how effective this was, redeployed it against Arsenal in the Community Shield this season.

This time it did not work.

Arsenal had numerous solutions against this set-up, having had time to prepare, using their technical and versatile players in build-up.

As difficult as it is to overcome a man-to-man press executed as well as Brighton's, Arteta's track record suggests he will likely find ways to minimise its effectiveness against his side.

Evolving Arsenal taking a necessary risk

Arteta's response to Brighton, starting when they host Leeds on Saturday (12:30 BST), will be another chapter in his team's evolution - one that is both proactive and reactive.

This season we have seen Arteta encourage more asymmetrical and fluid play too, particularly down their right - a phenomenon worth its own deep-dive.

Kai Havertz has consistently moved over to the right touchline. White has arrived high up the pitch from a right-back position. Bukayo Saka has found himself on the wing or attacking centrally. Rice and Odegaard have come across to show for the ball too.

This new style of play, built on small-space combinations, fluidity and numerical overloads, has given Arsenal new answers to the same old low-block problem.

By dragging teams towards one side of the pitch, finding players in the middle or far side of the pitch in space has been a tactic that has led to goals this season too.

What all of this suggests is that Arteta is willing to move away from what has worked so well in previous seasons in the pursuit of new solutions, hoping to outrun a league looking to narrow the gap.

Such reinvention comes with teething problems, as Arsenal's struggles against Brighton showed.

But for a side looking to stay at the top, not reinventing may be a greater risk.