Brighton halt Arsenal's perfect start: Should Mikel Arteta's Gunners worry about set pieces?

A lifeless attack and a sudden drought on set pieces exposed major flaws for the Gunners as Fabian Hurzeler's squad ended their perfect start with an emphatic 3-0 rout

Sep 19, 2026 at 1:06 pm ET • 3 min read

Perfect, no more. Arsenal were one of the only teams in a top-five league to win all of their matches so far this season, until meeting their end in an away trip to face Brighton, where they lost 3-0. The Seagulls showed why they're currently the highest-scoring team in the Premier League, jumping out to a 2-0 lead by half, and Arsenal didn't have an answer to get back into the match. Matches like this one are where they need Viktor Gyokeres to be the striker that they secured from Sporting Club Portugal, but instead, it's players like 16-year-old Max Downman who are introduced to turn the tide.

Of course, Brighton's excellent recruitment to bring in 19-year-old Charalampos Kostoulas, who had a goal and an assist, and the return of Pascal Gross to the club that has gradually improved under Fabian Hurzeler has to be respected. Hurzeler is still the youngest manager in the Premier League, and now, after defeating Arsenal at home, he finds his squad right in the midst of the title race. Brighton may fade away in the long run, but with the struggles of Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Manchester United, a void has been created among the Premier League's elite, and it's one that they are set on filling.

Prior to this game, Arsenal had only allowed one goal in Premier League play before Brighton put three past them, and sure it came with the Seagulls outperforming their xG of 1.41 in the match, but the question of what happens when Arsenal goes behind looms. It's their biggest loss in almost three years, which also came to Brighton under Roberto De Zerbi. Arsenal only took eight shots, and none of those came from the five substitutes introduced to change the game.

Could corners shift the title race?

The Gunners have plenty of depth in defense, but that hasn't translated on the attacking side of things. Most days, you toss your hands up to a result like this one, but the title could be separated by fewer than five points between Arsenal and City. With Erling Haaland, City are never out of a match, and while scoring a goal on Arsenal is among the hardest things to do in the Premier League, their attack, when removing set pieces, doesn't strike fear in the opposition.

This season, in five games, Arsenal have taken 16 shots from dead-ball situations, but they haven't scored on any of them. Going back to last season in Premier League play, they scored 23 goals from 177 shots in the same scenarios. Part of this drop is due to stricter enforcement on grappling in the box, but, according to a study by Michael Caley of the Expecting Goals newsletter and Double Pivot Podcast, keepers are also defending corners differently, punching and claiming more, leading to a drop from .48 goals per match from corners down to .28 goals per match, which is the lowest number since the 2015-16 season.

If Arsenal aren't getting goals from set plays, then relying on Kai Havertz and Gyokeres can become a liability. The margins atop the league are quite thin, and Arsenal are now the favorites to win it again after triumphing last season. Defending a Premier League title is a hard thing to do, and now losing like this on the way into an international break will only give the club more time than they'd like to stew on the result. Of course, Arsenal have to be given the benefit of the doubt after securing the title, but this match will need to be a blip instead of the beginning of a new trend as they look to push to retain it.