Online Reporter
ARSENAL yesterday suffered their first defeat of the season as they were stunned by Brighton, who put three goals past the champions at Amex Stadium.
On the back of fine wins over Coventry City and Manchester United, the Seagulls started the match in confident style while the Gunners struggled to deal with the intensity shown by the hosts.
Pascal Gross gave Brighton a 31st-minute lead with a shot from the edge of the box that went in off the post. Arsenal, who had won their past nine league games and seven in all competitions at the start of this campaign, were not allowed to settle and looked uncharacteristically nervy on the ball.
They forced their best chance to equalise on a counter-attack just before half-time, but Bukayo Saka did not take the opportunity after the ball fell to him in the area following Martin Odegaard’s deflected effort.
Just seconds after that missed opportunity, Brighton claimed their second goal as Charalampos Kostoulas was given too much space on the edge of the box to turn and fire past David Raya.
Mikel Arteta opted not to make any changes at half-time as he looked for a response from his side, but it didn’t come as Chema Andres headed in Brighton’s third 12 minutes into the second half from a Gross corner. — BBC.
