Arsenal accused of arrogance as Brighton expose David Raya’s one flaw

Arsenal’s attitude has been called into question after Saturday’s 3-0 defeat away to Brighton ended the Premier League champions’ perfect start.

The Gunners hadn’t found themselves 3-0 down in a Premier League game since May 2023 – when they also lost to Brighton by the very same scoreline, that time at home.

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But Mikel Arteta‘s side were thoroughly outclassed on the south coast, dropping points for only the third time since February and failing to win for the first time in any competition this season.

And Highbury Squad’s Sophie Nicolaou wonders whether a touch of arrogance has crept in.

“Arsenal were humbled,” she told Shebahn Aherne and Tony Cascarino on talkSPORT’s Weekend Sports Breakfast. “And dare I say this about our team…I think we’re always confident, but we’re not cocky.

“And I thought yesterday we had this air of arrogance, maybe cockiness.

“I don’t know if we started to believe our own hype, like this undefeated angle or whatever, but yesterday was a huge lesson in the Premier League.”

Earlier, Arsenal ‘Invincible’ Ashley Cole had told talkSPORT he could see the current Gunners crop emulating Arsene Wenger’s legendary team of 2003/04 by going the entire Premier League campaign unbeaten.

Evidently, that dream is now over for another season.

“Nothing is given to you as champions,” Nicolaou continued. “People are going to come at you week after week after week.

“Every team is going to want to do that to the Arsenal, and I just don’t think that we were prepared.

“And that’s what I was shocked about. We looked a little arrogant. We looked like [we thought] we could go in there maybe and just turn up as champions and get that result. It was uncharacteristic across the board.

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“I’m sure Mikel is not going to be happy with that at all…I thought we kind of showed up thinking that we were going to get a result, and I just haven’t seen that from our team in a long time.”

Nicolaou praised Brighton for producing a ‘masterclass’ at the Amex Stadium, where three-time back-to-back Golden Glove-winning goalkeeper David Raya‘s possible sole weakness was shown up.

“They did their homework,” she reflected. “It was a bit of a masterclass.

“And I also think something that they did that was interesting – that not a lot of teams do against us – is they took shots [from] outside the box [Brighton’s first two goals came from range].

“And if there’s one area of David Raya’s game where maybe he has a little bit of a weak spot, it’s taking those long shots…”

“So I thought the manager [Fabian Hurzeler] did brilliantly prepping for this game.

“Brighton, I thought, played their best game I’ve ever seen them play in the Premier League – definitely against us.”

Arsenal head into the international break second in the table early in the defence of their first Premier League title for 22 years.