Two teams with 100% records meet at Emirates Stadium on Saturday lunchtime, as we look to claim nine league wins in a row for the first time in 20 years.
Should we do that, it would be the fourth time in our Premier League history we’ve claimed nine points from nine, and the second occasion under Mikel Arteta’s stewardship as we set the tone for the campaign ahead.
However we’ll have a fight on our hands as Fabian Hurzeler’s Brighton have also impressed in the opening weeks, but we’ll be hoping that last season’s double over the south-coast club plus home advantage at a noisy Emirates Stadium will help push us into the international break with a perfect start.
Success by the Sea
31-year-old Hurzeler has become the Premier League’s youngest-ever manager, but he has quickly made an impression, with Everton crushed 3-0 on the opening day, and a last-minute Joao Pedro header beating Manchester United 2-1. Carabao Cup progress was also achieved on Tuesday as Crawley Town were drubbed 4-0 by the free-scoring Seagulls.
They’ve enjoyed a busy, high-spending transfer window, and before deadline day they were Europe's second-biggest spenders. £40 million took Leeds United forward Georgino Rutter, £30 million splashed on Newcastle United winger Yankuba Minteh, and midfielders Mats Wieffer, Brajan Gruda and Matt O'Reilly costing £25 million apiece.
A similar fee was spent on central defender Ferdi Kadioglu who arrived from Fenerbache on Tuesday, while the major departures have seen Pascal Gross head to Borussia Dortmund, while Deniz Undav joined him in the Bundesliga with Stuttgart. Facundo Buonanotte has headed to Leicester City on loan, while Valentin Barco has temporarily switched to Sevilla.
What the managers say
Arteta: "We try to prepare like every manager and every team does, giving us the exact information and the relevant information that can really help us and give us what we need to win the game. We will try to do the same tomorrow for a team that is doing really well and have won all of their games with their new coach. It’s going to be a tough match.
"We are playing at home as well, get our supporters going, and create a special atmosphere and we know how important it is to have that kind of energy."
Hurzeler: “I’m looking forward to competing with Arsenal and their coaching staff. It will be a great challenge for us and we have a lot of respect but we go there to win and show our style of play even when we play away.
“We have had a great start. We are trying to make the next step, trying to continue the process, and now we have a big challenge ahead of us. We are looking forward and let's see what happens on Saturday.”
Team news
New signing Mikel Merino picked up a shoulder injury during training and will be out for a few weeks, while Gabriel Jesus will also be missing after he was forced to sit out the win against Aston Villa due to a groin problem.
Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney are our other injury concerns after the duo continue to recover from their knee and hamstring issues sustained during the summer, while Neto and Raheem Sterling weren't registered in time to play in this fixture.
As for Brighton, O’Reilly was injured 10 minutes into his debut against Crawley after a strong tackle that left him needing a surgery on his ankle, while Weiffer missed the Manchester United win with a minor issue and could return.
Ankle injuries have blighted Brighton, with Evan Ferguson and Pervis Estupinan out since the spring with similar ailments, but both returned to the bench in midweek, with the latter getting some gametime in the League Cup success.
Talking tactics
Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme: Hurzeler is lining Brighton up in a 4-2-3-1 that becomes a 4-1-2-3 in possession. In this shape both wingers try to keep their width with a view to isolating full-backs. Brighton have the second-highest number of dribbles so far, with Kaoru Mitoma leading the way (12), ably assisted by Yankuba Minteh and Pedro (both 7).
They flood the box whenever they are inside the final third, and have shown a real penchant for counter-attacking with serious menace. With pace to burn right across their forward line, we must be wary of the threat Brighton carry from these turnovers, even when they begin inside their own half.
Out of possession Hurzeler has got his players pressing with enthusiasm. Last weekend they outran United by 4.66km, having covered an astonishing 12.6 extra kilometres in the previous match at Everton. The Seagulls’ average distance covered is currently far and away the highest in the division.
Central attackers Danny Welbeck and Pedro, are great at hassling defensive players, and this is the trigger for everybody else to hunt in packs from behind. However when they commit to a press the south coast side squeeze their back four up to the halfway line, so early passes played in behind could pay off, while the use of one holding midfielder in possession could mean we look to overload whoever occupies that role with 2 v 1s in transition.
Facts and stats
We have won three of our last four Premier League games against Brighton, as many as we had in our first 10.
We are looking to start a league campaign with three successive clean sheets for just the fourth time, previously doing so in 1903/04, 1924/25 and 2012/13. We have kept five clean sheets in our last eight league games against Brighton, against no side have we kept more shutouts during this period.
Brighton have won just three of their 18 league games on the road, although they did beat Everton at Goodison Park on the opening day. They failed to win any of their seven Premier League away games against London sides last season.
For the third time in the last four seasons, Brighton have won their opening two Premier League matches. The Seagulls haven’t won their opening three league games in a season since 2011/12 in the Championship.
We have won nine of our last 10 home Premier League games kicking off at 12:30 on a Saturday, winning each of their last four and scoring 3+ goals in each.
Fabian Hurzeler is just the fourth Brighton manager to win his opening two league games in charge, but none have won their third.
Kai Havertz has been involved in nine goals in his last eight Premier League appearances at Emirates Stadium (6 goals, 3 assists). The German has also scored in each of his last three games against Brighton.
Bukayo Saka has been involved in 17 goals in his last 19 Premier League appearances (12 goals, 5 assists), assisting in each of the first two games in 2024/25. The only Arsenal player to assist a goal in the first three games of a Premier League season was Thierry Henry in 2004/05.
Since the start of last season, no player has scored more Premier League goals as a substitute than Leandro Trossard (5 – level with Aston Villa’s Jhon Duran), with the Belgian scoring 10 goals across his last 20 league games.
Danny Welbeck is looking to score in three consecutive Premier League appearances for the first time since January 2014.
Match officials
Chris Kavanagh makes his first appearance at Emirates Stadium since our famous 3-2 win against Bournemouth in March 2023 on Saturday. He refereed us twice on our travels last term, which saw us draw at Chelsea and Liverpool, but we have won 10 of the 19 occasions he has overseen our matches.
Meanwhile Brighton have only won four times on his watch in 17 attempts, and only once in the past seven years. It will be the first time he has officiated one of their games since November 2022.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Assistants: Lee Betts, Richard West
Fourth official: John Busby
VAR: Andy Madley
Assistant VAR: Steve Meredith
Brighton’s recent visits
The Seagulls have enjoyed their trips to Emirates Stadium since their ascension to the top-flight, winning on four of their eight visits. They’re one of just three teams to have won more or as many visits to Emirates Stadium as they’ve lost in the Premier League, along with Manchester City (W7 L6) and Swansea City (W3 L3).
However we were successful in last season’s meeting, winning 2-0 thanks to second-half goals from Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz. The campaign before saw the Seagulls claim two wins, knocking us out of the League Cup by a 3-1 scoreline, and then a 3-0 win to all-but end our championship challenge.
Before last year’s triumph, you had to go back to May 2021 for when we last tasted success over the Sussex side on our own patch, when a Nicolas Pepe brace saw us win 2-0.
LIVE COVERAGE
Every men’s home matchday throughout the 2024/25 season, our new matchday show Live From N5 comes to you from Emirates Stadium one hour before kick-off, and takes you behind the curtain at our home as well as the Sobha Realty Training Centre to hear from the squad.
For this edition, Nicole Holliday and Jeremie Aliadiere are on hosting duties, and will be joined by former Gunner Carl Jenkinson, double Olympic diving medallist Noah Williams and ahead of his big bout at Wembley Arena, we speak to huge Arsenal fan and MMA fighter Simeon Powell.
As well as that, rapper Kojey Radical will join us from pitchside, while Frimmy is with the players as they arrive at Emirates Stadium - plus find out who the squad think will make the best manager with our Question of the Day.
There will be a look back at Aston Villa, a chance to win a new third shirt and we'll take you to the launch of a new book on our place in Black British culture, all before handing over to Dan Roebuck and Adrian Clarke for live commentary of the match.
You can also find out which broadcasters are showing the action live wherever you are in the world.
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