Arsenal
Arteta Shrugs Off Hürzeler’s Complaint After Delay-Marred 1-0 Result
Arteta’s three-word reply followed Fabian Hurzeler’s complaint after a stoppage-heavy 1-0 Saka goal.
Mikel Arteta offered a short, dry response when faced with Fabian Hürzeler’s post-match criticism. Asked about the Brighton manager’s accusation of Arsenal’s so-called dark arts, Arteta smiled and said: “What a surprise.”
The exchange followed a 1–0 game decided by a scratchy Bukayo Saka finish and dominated at times by lengthy stoppages. At the final whistle Hürzeler remained openly frustrated. “Only one team who tried to play football,” Brighton’s beleaguered boss fumed.
Opta highlighted the extent of the delays, noting Arsenal required a combined 30 minutes and 51 seconds to restart play across the contest, which saw 13 minutes added on. Hürzeler widened his critique in a longer interview: “I ask you one question,” he posed to assembled media. “Did you see in a Premier League game a goalkeeper going down three times? You can’t control these kind of things … therefore the Premier League has to find a rule.
“I made my point before the game and I stick to it. In the end I think [against] these kind of opponents, you can only punish [them] by winning so today I have no arguments on my side. If I would have a 2–1 win, a deserved 2–1 win, I could speak differently.”
Arteta had warned before Wednesday’s fixture that David Raya was suffering from “some niggles”, yet the matchroom interpretation of each stoppage remained a source of debate. The sport’s authorities are reported to be considering measures to curb excessive delays, including forcing players to remain off the pitch for one minute after treatment, though there are not thought to be any specific punishments for goalkeepers who require medical attention.
Arteta was unconcerned by Hürzeler’s protest. “You just go back to the previous games [between Brighton and Arsenal] and you’ll find a lot of comments like this always,” he shrugged. That earlier context included a different tone from Hürzeler, who in October praised Arsenal’s set pieces: “You can’t defend them one-against-one, that’s the first thing,” he explained. “The second thing, I think it’s not only Gabriel [who provides a threat], it’s the movement they do together. I think they block very well for each other.”
Arsenal
Arsenal’s unbeaten start ends in defeat at Brighton
Arsenal were beaten 3-0 by Brighton as their strong start to 2026/27 unraveled badly.
Arsenal’s flawless opening to the 2026/27 campaign was brought to a sharp halt as Brighton & Hove Albion ran out 3-0 winners in the Premier League. What had been a controlled start to the season quickly unravelled, with Arsenal producing a passive first-half showing and then finding no route back after the interval.
Brighton set the tone early, pressing with intensity and punishing Arsenal’s slow reactions in defensive areas. The hosts’ first two goals followed a strikingly similar pattern, with Groß and Kostoulas both given the space to shoot from around 20 yards. Arsenal were slow to close down the ball, and Gabriel was singled out for failing to step out quickly enough, although the problems stretched across the team.
After the break, Arsenal were expected to respond, but the pattern barely changed. Brighton continued to control the contest, and Chema Andrés ended any lingering hope with a header that made the lead unassailable. Arsenal’s best chance to reduce the deficit fell to Kai Havertz, but he failed to take it.
The performance was especially surprising given how strong Arsenal’s defence had looked in the opening four league matches. Before this trip, Morgan Rogers had been the only player to score against David Raya, and Arsenal had conceded just 2.7 expected goals. At Brighton, though, the back line looked unusually sluggish, while the attack offered very little in return.
Mikel Arteta’s side never recovered their composure, and the closing stages brought little more than frustration for the travelling support. Arsenal were poor in possession, blunt in the final third and repeatedly beaten in defensive zones. It was not a collapse that should define their season, but it did end the sense of invulnerability that had built around them in recent weeks.
Arsenal
Arteta considers Dowman loan with Nwaneri case still fresh in mind
Arteta is open to a Dowman loan, but only after weighing Arsenal’s needs and Nwaneri’s cautionary tale.
Mikel Arteta has not ruled out sending Max Dowman out on loan, but the Arsenal manager insists any decision will depend on finding the correct move for the 16-year-old midfielder.
So far, approaches for Dowman have been turned down, although Arteta suggested that stance could be reviewed in January. He said the club will continue to assess the teenager at regular intervals before deciding what serves his development best.
“We will evaluate every six months where we are, what is the best thing for him to do and from there make the right decisions,” Arteta reflected.
His reasoning is shaped by several moving parts. The manager pointed to Dowman’s needs, the situation inside the squad, the minutes available to him and the standard of his performances when he does play.
“It will depend on a lot of factors: what he needs, where the team is as well, the availability that we have in the squad, the amount of minutes that he’s playing, the quality he’s delivering when he’s got those minutes.
“We have to be open, but now the focus is to be here and impact the team.”
The discussion inevitably brings back memories of Ethan Nwaneri, whose progress followed a different and less straightforward path. Nwaneri broke through at the end of the 2022-23 season as the youngest player in Premier League history, before being sent back to the academy the next year.
He returned to the senior squad for 2024-25 and made 37 appearances in all competitions, helped by injuries elsewhere. But the following season saw his role reduced sharply, with only six Premier League outings in the first half of 2025-26.
That led to a January loan to Marseille at the request of then-manager Roberto De Zerbi, who left a few weeks later. Habib Beye took over and publicly questioned Nwaneri’s “everyday commitment,” while the midfielder finished the spell with only 412 minutes, fewer than he had already collected at Arsenal that season.
Arteta acknowledged the unpredictability of such moves when he said: “There have been many cases of that age that they’ve gone [on loan] and they’ve been successful, some others not,” adding, “Particularly, I think I was 17 when I went to Paris [Saint-Germain].”
Arsenal
Arteta urges Arsenal focus as club history beckons
Arteta has warned Arsenal not to lose focus as they target an eight-game winning start.
Mikel Arteta has challenged Arsenal to keep their feet on the ground as they close in on a piece of history. A win over Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday would give the Gunners eight straight victories to begin a season for the first time since 1903, but the manager made clear that the milestone cannot become a distraction.
“We’ve got a really tough opponent tomorrow so we’re going to have to earn the right to win the game,” he warned. “But certainly that will be the mindset of the players and the team.”
Arteta was also asked whether he had expected Arsenal to open the campaign with seven consecutive wins. He said the signs were encouraging over the summer, even if he knew the challenge would be severe.
“Well, we know how complicated it is to win a football match at this level,” he confessed. “So to win seven, it tells the story.
“After the World Cup , especially, there were a lot of unknowns about how the players and the team were going to react. We didn’t have any time with them to work together. But I said from day one, I think the attitude and what I was seeing, I was really impressed with.
“Then you have to put it down to performances. We had a bit of luck as well, for sure, to win four matches. And we are here. And then we want to make another one for sure tomorrow.”
Arsenal’s best start to a season remains the eight-game run from 1903-04. In that era, Woolwich Arsenal were in the Second Division, and their sequence included emphatic wins over sides that finished in very different places in the table. Even so, the campaign also featured a 4-0 victory over Manchester United, with Arsenal ending the season with the division’s highest totals for goals scored and fewest conceded.
