Mikel Arteta brushes off naysayers and critics as Arsenal win ugly at Brighton to stay on course for title

Arsenal toil to just about do enough, but it may mean an awful lot more.

Mikel Arteta’s minimalism led to what was almost the maximum outcome on the night at Brighton, as a 1-0 victory ensured they went seven points clear at the top with a game more played. The news that Manchester City had drawn 2-2 with Nottingham Forest was greeted by even greater celebration from the Arsenal travelling support than their own final whistle. Moments later, for the first time this season, they were singing “we’re gonna win the league”.

That might yet tempt fate but it’s hard to begrudge them given how big this felt for the season. There have nevertheless rarely been matches so potentially seismic that were so muted - at least until Fabian Hurzeler’s press conference started. “I will never be the type of manager who tries to win that way.,” he said. It was still Arsenal that won, though.

Theey secured the lead from Bukayo Saka’s fortuitous opener... and that was pretty much that. Mikel Arteta’s side duly kept their first clean sheet in five, since the 7 February 3-0 win over Sunderland, which may also prove highly significant.

It will go someway to ease all of this angst, still palpable throughout this match. City’s result instead means Arsenal are now also on the longest winning run in the Premier League, at three.

Not for the first time this season, mind, this one probably didn’t need to feel so tense.

Hurzeler said after the match that “there was only one team trying to play football”, adding that his side deserved to win 2-1. He then followed up on a question about his pre-game criticism of time-wasting by asking, “do you ever see in a Premier League game the goalkeeper going down three times”.

When asked whether he remonstrated with Arteta about time-wasting, Hurzeler just said “there were so many”. He also repeatedly said the Premier League need to look at the rules.

Arteta’s response was a simple and sarcastic: “What a surprise?”

When asked whether he cares what other managers say, the Basque simply said “depends”. On who? “Yeah. And the comments... and the purpose.”

Before debating the actual merits of such arguments and the mechanics of the game, the extra psychological layer of Wednesday’s results should be acknowledged.

This was probably the kind of night when it was expected that Arsenal might slip in an awkward away game as City won a forgiving home game, only for the reverse to happen. For Arteta, the damage of that 2-2 draw away to Wolves is undone. For now.

The night’s results should nevertheless remain a warning that this is highly unlikely to be a straight line to the end, in the way the 2018-19 season was, say. Arsenal have to be conscious of that, which is why they probably still have to be conscious of performance. While Hurzeler had that spiky comment on how he wouldn’t want to play that way - which Arteta refused to comment on - and there’s obviously been wider debate about whether you’d want to win to win the league that way, the Basque himself wouldn’t want to play every game like this.

It creates too much psychological toil, but that points to a wider pattern.

There have been times this season when Arsenal have anxiously toiled for a goal, which is why a fortuitous strike like Saka’s must feel like such a reprieve - and maybe like they were due. There are certainly those among Arteta’s staff who believe that the club have been unlucky in many games, where the scoreline has not reflected the xG. One of the Basque’s guiding beliefs is that if you perform to a level where you produce around 2xG or more and keep the opposition to under 1xG, you likely win the majority of your games.

So here was Saka suddenly cutting inside to try a surprise long shot - in the way some demand he should do more - that had an xG of 0.01. In other words, the sort you wouldn’t usually attempt. It duly took a deflection to wrong-foot Bart Verbruggen.

And yet, as has been the case in many recent games, Arsenal didn’t press on. The next shot didn’t even come until the second half. Brighton were allowed to control play, if not quite force it. It was so familiar to so many recent Arsenal matches - but also familiar to so many recent Brighton matches. That Joao Pedro had such a fine goalscoring performance for Chelsea against Aston Villa was so pointed, since he is one talent that the club have not managed to replace. Kaoru Mitoma was allowed to roam without doing much. They are so well structured until the final third, which then gradually erodes some momentum. Hurzeler’s complaints sound a little more embittered when you consider Brighton only created 0.8xG themselves.

Maybe that’s why Arsenal let them have the ball, but recent patterns suggest there are other reasons. Arteta evidently doesn’t want it. He can often be seen urgently gesturing to his players to get up the pitch. While Arteta has rightly been criticised for a certain conservatism, his general ideology is fundamentally based on players taking the ball on in possession. That does involve some risk, or at least a willingness to constantly be proactive.

One of the things that does visibly happen with Arsenal in such situations, however, is that too many players stop doing it. They don’t take the step up. It might be subtle, sometimes almost imperceptible, but the cumulative effect is that they become vulnerable. Some at the club do put it down to the psychology that comes with so badly desiring to win this first title in 22 years.

It can take just one slip to change everything, which Arsenal now know all well - not least from this very fixture last season. Arsenal’s trip to Brighton then was arguably part of the same pattern, and maybe the moment when their 2024-25 title challenge started faltering. Arsenal had been 1-0 up through an early Ethan Nwaneri goal, only to keep it contained and for a penalty to unravel them.

Arteta’s staff would still insist that William Saliba’s attempted header was absolutely not a penalty, but there can be no debate over the risk of the approach.

The feeling had been that they would get caught, and that so many tense games would gradually erode their edge. But this time it didn’t happen. Brighton didn’t have enough.

The manner in which the situation was reversed may be symbolic, as well as significant. Crucially, it may also ease Arsenal and bolster reassurance to the point they may not suffer this type of game again soon.

The profile of attackers does help. Arsenal immediately looked more lively when Kai Havertz came on for Viktor Gyokeres. There was just more to their game. He was more fluid, and better able to link up with the attackers. Whereas the ball often bounced off the Swede, or he struggled to come away with it, Havertz kept it under control.

Arsenal now have full control of the title race, for the first time in weeks.

It meant this was one of those occasions where both positions were probably right. Hurzeler may not want to play this way, but Arteta doesn’t really want to either. He has grander ideas, about putting opposition through the “spin drier”. In this situation, though, as Hurzeler himself acknowledged, they did what they needed. It was enough. For this game, maybe yet for the title.

They have just been given fair warning this isn’t a pattern to repeat.