Brighton vs Arsenal becoming a manufactured rivalry

As Arsenal prepare for the short journey south to face Brighton at the Amex Stadium, both sides come off the back of their two biggest derbies in the Premier League.

Mikel Arteta’s side have just dismantled Tottenham in the North London Derby, a fixture rich in history and memorable encounters over its many years of existence.

Graham Potter’s side had just contested in the A23 (or M23) Derby, a intriguing rivalry that emerged in the 1970s as a series of meetings between the two clubs at pivotal points coughed up some feisty encounters on and off the pitch. One incident after another piled up and now the clubs strongly loathe one another.

None of which has to do with Arsenal. The Seagulls have their heated derby matches and Arsenal have theirs. So why is this fixture working its way towards that?

Brighton vs Arsenal: A forced rivalry emerging from the remnants of Neal Maupay and Matteo Guendouzi’s all-French scuffle back in 2020

It’s very forced, and Brighton are leading the charge.

Since promotion to the Premier League in 2017, the teams have faced each other eight times with the points evenly split: three wins apiece and two draws. The Gunners have conceded killer late goals on a few occasions and the atrociously tepid -1 draw in May 2019 was a bitterly disappointing afternoon that ended Arsenal’s hopes of a top four finish.

These results happen. It hasn’t conjured up any distinguishable love-loss between the two clubs or their sets of fans. If you’ve been to Brighton, it’s impossible not to like the pleasant seaside town.

And then there is Neal Maupay and Matteo Guendouzi, where this all seems to have sprung up from. The former is the quintessential wind-up merchant; an exceedingly unlikable character who to his credit is an expert in getting under peoples’ skin. That deliberate foul on Bernd Leno added to an already growing list of reasons to not be his biggest fan.

In that same fateful June 2020 encounter he also scored a 95th minute winner. That was painful. Guendouzi, still rightly riled up by Maupay’s actions against Leno, snapped at the disappointment and a scuffle broke out. He hasn’t played for the club in the one year and three months since.

After the game Maupay stated that the Arsenal players ‘need to learn humility’. These sorts of player scraps happen all the time, yet on this occasion they’ve been amplified and manufactured into something that isn’t much more than a few toys being chucked out of the pram.

From the Seagulls’ point of view, it almost makes sense to get the fans charged up for a home tie against a supposed ‘top six’ club; egg on the opposition players and see if the additional bite makes them lose their tempers in your favour.

There is a narrative being pushed that isn’t especially pertinent. Brighton’s Twitter post is a clear effort to steer the conversation in one direction. But, despite that, it’s kind of fun. Why not add some extra bite to a fixture Arsenal will just be deemed as favourites for regardless of the two clubs’ differing spots in the Premier League table?

Above all, it makes winning all the sweeter.