Arsenal: Where Arteta was beaten tactically against Potter’s Brighton

Mikel Arteta won’t win every battle. For a manager with no experience in such a position outside of his time at Arsenal, there will come moments where he will finish second best in the tactical duels.

It’s happened before and it will happen again. Against Brighton on Saturday, it’s fair to say Graham Potter got the better of him.

The Brighton boss is someone who is earning widespread acclaim despite his Seagulls side having finished 15th and 16th respectively in his two full seasons in charge. Garnering followers from his time in Sweden he spent a solitary campaign at Swansea before being snapped up on the south coast, and this season is seeing his work finally reap some reward.

Arsenal were never going to have an easy evening at the Amex Stadium. Despite the hosts missing key players, they’re in among the top boys in the table and have a glowing record against the Gunners on home soil.

Brighton vs Arsenal: The area where Arteta struggled tactically against Graham Potter in the 0-0 Premier League draw

Much would be made of the tactical setups of both teams, and on this occasion it was Potter who came out on top.

Arteta’s lineup was easy to predict, but how they would look to play around and through Brighton would be the crucial aspect. Potter likes his teams to be compact and in squeezing central areas and having three men press the Arsenal defence high they forced the Gunners to do precisely what they wanted.

Making Aaron Ramsdale or Ben White to go long each time, their three towering central defenders outfought Aubameyang, Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe with each punt forward. Cutting lanes in central areas and using the wing-backs to tighten the spaces out wide, Arsenal could not find a way through the press.

Equally, knowing Kieran Tierney would play in an advanced role, the space behind him was regularly exploited by Leandro Trossard and Joel Veltman, who didn’t give the covering Sambi Lokonga a moment to rest.

While the makeup of a team and how they approach a game can catch any side and manager off guard, it’s the manner with which you respond that is key. What do you do to counteract that superiority and manage the game state?

This is where Arteta was found lacking on the night, even if he wasn’t all to blame.

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