Brighton 3-0 Arsenal: Premier League champions outfought and outclassed in heavy loss

Arsenal’s 100 per cent start to their Premier League title defence ended in emphatic fashion as Brighton secured a stunning 3-0 win against Mikel Arteta’s dumbstruck side.

Arsenal arrived at the Amex Stadium with ambitions of equalling a 123-year club record of eight straight victories to start a season, but that piece of history looked in doubt right from the kick-off, with a rampant Brighton side delivering a masterclass against the champions.

Pascal Gross blasted Brighton ahead after 31 minutes before Charalampos Kostoulas doubled the hosts’ lead on the stroke of half-time.

Arteta sprinted down the tunnel in the hope of masterminding a half-time speech which would revive his side’s fortunes.

But Brighton remained on top after the interval and they served Arsenal a dose of their own medicine when Chema Andres headed home from a corner shortly before the hour mark.

A disjointed Arsenal were never at the races and Arteta will now have 21 days to stew over a shock result, which will abruptly end any suggestion of his side cantering to a second league title in as many seasons.

For Brighton, surely the best result of manager Fabian Hurzeler’s career – just days after a brilliant Carabao Cup comeback win at Manchester United – catapults them up to third in the table, just two points off the Gunners.

Arteta might have rotated his side for their win at Ipswich earlier in the week, but here he fielded his strongest side – one that simply could not live with their inspired opponents.

After just seven minutes Bruno Guimaraes, making his first Premier League start for his new employers, gave the ball away, and Kostoulas tried his luck from range.

David Raya got fingertips to the Brighton man’s shot, but it was a sign of things to come.

Arsenal were pegged in by the relentless Seagulls and the hosts’ deserved breakthrough arrived.

Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori allowed Gross far too much time to shoot and his fine 20-yard strike pinged in off Raya’s near post.

A case could be made for Raya being Arsenal’s MVP last season, but the Spaniard should have done better to divert Gross’ long-range strike away from danger.

The largely anonymous Bukayo Saka fluffed his lines when he failed to get any meaningful contact on a fine Arsenal counter-attack and Brighton raced straight up the other end to increase their advantage.

Calafiori was out of position and, when the ball fell to Kostoulas, the visitors failed to put any pressure on the Greece forward. He unleashed an unstoppable low strike from 22 yards and Raya was beaten again.

It was virtually the last kick of the first half and Arteta sprinted for the dressing room ahead of a pivotal team-talk, with Arsenal’s 100 per cent record hanging in the balance, and then some.

And Andres all but ended any hope of a comeback when he leapt unmarked from a corner to head a third for Brighton with 57 minutes on the clock.

Brighton went in search of a fourth and they nearly had it when Pascal Struijk’s header, again from a corner, dropped just wide of Raya’s post with the goalkeeper swinging at fresh air.

Kai Havertz might have landed a consolation for Arsenal in the closing stages, but Bart Verbruggen was equal to the one-on-one – the keeper’s only real test of the match – while substitute Matt O’Riley could have marked a match to celebrate Brighton’s 125-year anniversary with a fourth, but Raya was on hand to spare any further embarrassment.