Arsenal 2-0 Brighton: Arsenal crack the De Zerbi code, as Saka gives Milner a day to forget

Arsenal returned to winning ways in the Premier League following last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa, thanks to a deserved 2-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion.

Mikel Arteta’s side were made to work hard for their win, with the visitors keeping them at bay for almost an hour despite the home side’s domination of the ball and the chances, but Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz scored second-half goals to give the Gunners the points.

Jordan Campbell addresses some of the key issues arising from the game…

Can Arsenal find a way of killing off games earlier?

Eventually, in the 87th minute, Arsenal wrapped up the game. But for five minutes, the unthinkable seemed like it might be about to happen. 

Arsenal had utterly dominated and should have won by a wider margin but chance after chance went untaken. 

Brighton had been unable to create anything of note, but after the 80th minute they had their one spell of pressure and it produced a golden opportunity, one which Pascal Gross put wide. 

That is the danger of not killing off games. Thankfully for Arsenal, they survived the scare and Kai Havertz took his goal with the confidence of a man who looks like he has now truly settled into his new role. 

GO DEEPER

What’s wrong with using Havertz as a No 9 in the short term?

The German midfielder was not one of the players guilty of wastefulness in front of goal. Those faults lay at the door of Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Jesus, who had enough openings in front of goal to win three games. 

Similar to their loss at Villa last week, this was a strong all-round performance from Arsenal. They were by far the better team, limited the opposition to six shots and arrived at the edge of the penalty box more times than they could have wished for — yet they did not have anything to show for it until the 53rd minute.

There were so many occasions when it seemed like they were trying to score the perfect goal by playing one pass extra. It was reminiscent of the old complaint about Arsene Wenger’s team trying to walk the ball into the net, but Arsenal showed patience. 

They did not start unleashing attempt after attempt from range and continued to probe at the edge of the box, looking for a way through. They are becoming more polished at finding the gaps as the season has progressed and this was arguably their most fluid attacking display so far. 

Odegaard ran the show, dropping deeper to initiate attacks, and he was instrumental in the way Arsenal were able to carve open Brighton.

Will Milner sleep after his Saka nightmare?

With his 38th birthday in a fortnight and arriving at work for a shift against Bukayo Saka, James Milner probably didn’t need reminding of his age this afternoon.

Saka has rarely had the chance to drive at a full-back one-on-one this season. Teams have been doubling up on him in an attempt to crowd him out of games, but Brighton always leave space to play — and Saka took full advantage. 

It was the fifth minute when Saka completed his first take-on, driving down the outside before his ball across caused a scramble. The best chance of the half came when birthday boy Odegaard (25) played one of the passes of the season with the outside of his boot to find Saka in behind Milner, but he opted not to go himself and cut the ball back to Martinelli, who fired over. 

This was only Milner’s sixth league start of the season. Brought in by Roberto De Zerbi for his top-level experience and adaptability, starting at left-back is nothing strange for the ex-Liverpool midfielder as he did it for Jurgen Klopp’s side plenty of times. 

But Saka looked like a player who relished going up against an ageing defender with no one else to bail him out. Saka looked too sharp for Milner on so many occasions and continued to run off him, having three or four chances inside the box in the first half. 

The majority of the play came down that side and Milner was subbed off after an hour. He probably did not have too many complaints.

Was this the complete defensive performance?

Watching Brighton is different to watching any other team. Their teasing build-up style is unique but Arsenal’s reaction to it made for an even more confusing viewing experience. 

There were times that Arsenal’s centre-backs were 20 yards inside the Brighton half when their goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen had the ball. 

Havertz was often playing centre-back instead, such was the strictness of their man-marking approach in areas of the pitch. In possession, Arsenal’s rotations were so fluid that Oleksandr Zinchenko was the ‘false’ striker. 

It was out of possession that Arsenal were so impressive. They pressed high, blocking the middle and preventing the bounce passes that have become the staple of Brighton’s play. 

But by doing so they played a high-risk game. It left Arsenal 3v3 or 2v2 at the back almost all of the time but Gabriel Maghalaes and William Saliba put in utterly dominant performances. 

The ball into Evan Ferguson’s feet was the route forward for Brighton most of the time but time after time he had been bullied into second favourite to receive it before the ball had even reached him. If not, the aggressive approach from both defenders saw him lose the ball on his first touch. 

It was key to Arsenal taking control of the game after the opening stages. They allowed Brighton to progress from their goalkeeper into the attacking third only a handful of times, which is quite the achievement given Brighton had scored in their previous 32 Premier League games – the longest scoring streak in their league history. 

They managed to make an exciting team look ordinary — and frustrated.

Arsenal had lost their previous three home games against Brighton in all competitions – only against Man City (seven between 2018 and 2023) have they lost more consecutively at the Emirates Stadium – but this looked like Arteta had cracked the code. What did Mikel Arteta say?

We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.

What next for Arsenal?

Saturday, December 23: Liverpool (A), Premier League, 5.30pm GMT, 12.30pm ET

A crunch game between two title contenders. Arsenal’s last win over Jurgen Klopp’s side came in March 2022 but before that, they could call on a strong record against Liverpool, triumphing in 11 of their previous 17 encounters.

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(Top photo: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)