Football Daily | Brighton’s organised chaos viciously pecks Arsenal into submission

. UK edition

Chema Andres celebrates scoring for Brighton against Arsenal
Shout out to that shirt. Photograph: Tony O Brien/Reuters

In today’s Football Daily: Brighton’s birthday bounce sends them soaring

CAME IN LIKE A PECKING BALL …

For an elite head coach who isn’t used to seeing his team lose, suffering a rare defeat on the weekend before an international break is particularly hard to take. With the vast majority of your players hightailing it out of Dodge to rack up more air miles than Santa Claus across a decade’s worth of Christmas Eves, the chance to quickly put things right simply isn’t an option. With the first lull of the season set to be longer than any before, the potential for introspection, self-flagellation and over-thinking has never been higher. Luckily, Mikel Arteta has never struck Football Daily as the kind of intense, brooding and meticulous perfectionist likely to spend the next 19 days beating himself up over the monstering his team suffered from Brighton on Saturday. Whether it’s forlornly moving magnets around a tactics board or walking Win the dog around Arsenal’s largely-deserted training ground until her little legs are stumps, we’re confident the Arsenal boss’s every fleeting thought over the next three weeks will not be laser-focused on the manner in which the Seagulls viciously pecked his team of champions into submission and how best to ensure such a humiliation is never repeated.

Of course, while Arteta is sitting on a swing, gazing into the middle distance like a sad Pablo Escobar, Fabian Hürzeler can afford to cut loose and enjoy his early-season hiatus by indulging in his passion for padel, a sport which our older reader may not know is a new-fangled version of tennis for people too lazy to run. Slovenliness when it comes to busting a gut is certainly not an accusation that can be levelled at the German’s players, who tore into Arsenal like a swarm of angry bees and buzzed around them with such scrupulously-organised chaos that after 90 minutes their 3-0 margin of victory seriously flattered the beaten holders. “Extremely disappointed,” parped a shocked and awed Arteta after seeing his players subjected to a rare humiliation. “But first I think we have to congratulate Brighton for the victory. I think they deserve it, I think they were the better team.”

Wearing natty azzurri blue vintage shirts against Arsenal to mark their 125th anniversary, it’s difficult to imagine Brighton have played better since being founded in 1901. In the early Pathé News years, their first team was peopled by club legends like Peter Ward, Johnny Crumplin and a be-headbanded Steve Foster; the current lineup has a decidedly more cosmopolitan feel and, in the likes of Charalampos Kostoulas, Luka Vuskovic and Diego Gómez, boasts future Brighton icons and subsequent, overpriced, Chelsea squad members. “I want to say congratulations to this special club for the history, for everyone who has contributed in the past, for everyone who’s contributing in the present,” cooed Hürzeler, after a special day on the south coast. “I think the history of this club is very impressive and hopefully everyone can enjoy who has been a part of our journey so far.” Hürzeler went on to say that he considered Saturday’s performance more important than the result. Over the coming weeks in London Colney, his Arsenal counterpart will be treating both with equal significance.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We can skip the press conference because the story of the match is right here. Those were two clear red cards. Given the difficulties we faced playing 11 against 10, we can only imagine what 50 minutes of 11 against nine would have been like. So I’ll just have to limit myself to hugging my players, who gave it their all and played a first half, showed great class and character, setting us up perfectly to win the second half. They’ve put a referee, aged 41, with no international experience – it’s certainly not because he’s a great referee. Then the poor chap has come ‌here and hasn’t been able to cope with the pressure – and it really is intense pressure. I call it ’80s-style pressure’ here in this stadium, which you hardly ever see these days” – judging by José Mourinho and his A4 printout, can you guess if Real Madrid lost the derby against Atlético? Speaking of which, here’s Sid Lowe with his verdict on it all.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

Oxford United’s decision to market an American college-themed ‘United 93’ kit shortly after the 9/11 anniversary, only then to have to recall it (Friday’s Football Daily, full email edition), is a tad unfortunate. But until 1960 they were known as Headington United, from their heady days in the Southern League. So I am eagerly awaiting the ‘1960 Ron Atkinson’ range celebrating both their history and leading appearance maker (still)” – Jon Harris.

Following Andros Townsend’s freak (but miraculously not serious) on-pitch accident, will future fixtures between Prachuap and Pattani be known as the Roller derby?” – Phil Taverner.

OK. I messed up. On 30 August, I made a claim that Emilio Martínez’s transfer to Chelsea for £7.5m might be the bargain of the season. Now five games in and 12 goals conceded, I wish to retract my statement. I will try to do better and stay away from any rash predictions” – Nigel Sanders.

Football knowledge aside, I take great pride in knowing a lot about The Simpsons (earlier years especially … I haven’t watched it in about a decade). It was Wiggum who advised to dig up, not Homer (Friday’s Football Dailly letters)” – Mark Shrewsbury.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day prize goes to … Phil Taverner, who wins a copy of Behind the Curtain by Big Website’s Jonathan Wilson. It’s out now and available in The Guardian Bookshop alongside loads of other great football titles. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.