Brighton and Hove Albion made it 23 goals in seven league and cup matches with a comprehensive thrashing of the reigning Premier League champions on Saturday.
Arsenal were the attacking acid test, a team that has boasted the best defensive record in the last three seasons, but Fabian Hurzeler’s in-form side meted out the Gunners’ heaviest defeat since May 2023.
Unpicking the bones from this one, it’s our Scout Notes.
- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 5: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus + DefCon points
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Wissa pen miss + Newcastle the new DefCon kings?
COLLECTIVE SHOCKER FROM OUT-DUELLED GUNNERS
In the words of Mikel Arteta himself, you could see “from the first throw-in” that Brighton had the edge on Arsenal on Saturday.
The Seagulls simply looked the more determined and fired-up of the two sides, winning tackle after tackle in the middle of the park and never letting Arteta’s side settle.
“I think we have to congratulate Brighton for the victory. I think they deserve it, I think they were the better team.
“From our side, there were certain basics you need to accomplish in football, especially in the Premier League, that we were very far from. Winning the first duel, the second ball, that put to the game, especially how direct they were in a really difficult place for us.
“On top of that, especially in our own half, we didn’t respect any of the principles of play to get out of that man-to-man situation. That puts us on the back foot, so it was very difficult to control the game. When we had moments of dominance and control, we did open them up, but we didn’t finish those actions with the quality that is required to compensate for the things we did wrong.” – Mikel Arteta
Usually reliable performers like David Raya (£6.0m) and Gabriel Magalhaes (£8.0m) appeared rattled, the latter having one of his worst games in an Arsenal shirt. Bruno Guimaraes (£6.7m) and Jurrien Timber (£6.5m) looked every bit like they were making their first league starts of 2026/27 – which, of course, they were.
Really, though, no Gunner emerged with any credit from this game.
Everyone should be permitted to have a stinker now and again, however, and we might not see a performance like this again from Arsenal all season. Indeed, we have to go back over three years for their last three-goal defeat.
A display to simply forget about it and, most likely, one that will be an anomaly.
SAKA CONTINUES BIG CHANCE RUN
Arsenal actually outdid Brighton on the xG front but that doesn’t really tell the whole tale. A number of threatening Brighton attacks didn’t result in a shot, while Bukayo Saka‘s (£9.5m) gilt-edged opening – just before the Seagulls’ second goal – looked offside. Still, that continued Saka’s run of (officially) having an Opta-defined ‘big chance’ in every single Gameweek this season.
Kai Havertz‘s (£7.6m) xG-swelling one-on-one chance also came with the Gunners already 3-0 down.
GROSS – HOW DOES HE KEEP DOING IT?!
Above: Midfielders sorted by xGI overperformance in 2026/27
It’s seven returns in four matches for Pascal Gross (£5.8m), who is now FPL’s leading points-scorer.
Firing Brighton ahead from distance, he later crossed for full debutant Cherma Andres (£5.5m) to head in from a corner. He popped up in some advanced inside-left positions, too, even though it was technically Yasin Ayari (£5.4m) playing the furthest forward of Brighton’s central midfielders.
As the above table shows, Gross is seriously overdelivering on both the xG and xA fronts this season. We’ll look into the sustainability of his returns over the break (it’s a mixed bag, historically) but, even so, his xGI is still ahead of the likes of Dominik Szoboszlai (£7.0m), another penalty-taker operating from midfield. If Gross’d merely hit par (and not overachieved) with roughly two goals and one assist, he’d still be pretty much ahead of all other sub-£6.0m midfielders.
There were another 90 minutes for him here, and it’s clear that there are few others, perhaps no one, in this Brighton squad who Fabian Hurzeler trusts anywhere near as much:
“I think he enjoys himself on the pitch at the moment, scoring goals, but besides that, he’s just a great connector. You can really trust him, and the teammates can really trust him. He makes the players around him better, and then on top of that, he’s just a really good person who understands the game so well. So, I think that’s a really, really good role for me because I have this player on the pitch who can really connect with me and can contribute, regarding the match plan, well.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Pascal Gross
Gross now gets a welcome three-week break, having not been named in the Germany squad.
“I think he’s looking at the free time now, thinking ‘Where can I run a race?’. Because he will never stand still, and maybe he’s playing a little bit of padel, but I would also say to him that he needs to get a few days off. But it also shows his character; not only his character, he just has this winning mentality and it definitely helps us.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Pascal Gross
£5.5M FORWARD KOSTOULAS HITTING HIS STRIDE
At the other end of the career scale is Charalampos Kostoulas (£5.5m).
The teenage striker capped off a superb seven days in which he’s scored in all three league and cup matches. He even teed up Gross here, too, for the veteran German’s strike.
No one had more shots than the 19-year-old forward (four), while there were a couple of other occasions when he was fed in the box and just failed to pull the trigger.
“We knew that he’s capable of scoring goals out of nowhere; he is just a really good finisher with his right foot. But more important for me, really, is that he understands now to work hard against the ball and he has a good understanding of when to press and how to press. Therefore, yeah, I’m very pleased with how he’s doing, and in the end, he needs to understand if he does the basic things right, he will get the rewards by scoring goals. I think that’s what he proved this week.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Charalampos Kostoulas
But whereas Gross looks fairly nailed, there is the threat of Georginio Rutter (£5.3m), who is now back after a month out, with Kostoulas. Remember that Rutter started the season ahead of Kostoulas before injury struck.
The young Greek striker was phenomenal on Saturday, but you do wonder about game-time in the autumn with Rutter back and the schedule becoming a lot busier.
VUSKOVIC ON THE DEFCON TRAIL
Luka Vuskovic (£5.0m) has, like Gross, started all eight Brighton matches in all competitions this season.
Arriving on the south coast with a reputation for gathering DefCons, he has hit the threshold in two of the last three Gameweeks. It likely would have been three out of three, had he not come off earlier in the Coventry game – his only substitution of 2026/27 – last weekend.
Diego Gomez (£5.0m), who assisted Kostoulas’ strike, also bagged DefCon points.
Maxim De Cuyper (£4.9m) ‘only’ came away with a clean sheet but twice nearly bagged an assist. His corner was headed narrowly wide by Pascal Struijk (£4.9m), while Rutter could and should have diverted De Cuyper’s shot in.
WHY HURZELER BENCHED £4.5M MIDFIELDER YALCOUYE + DUNK MISSED OUT
Hurzeler made two changes for this match, one of which saw bargain-bin midfielder Malick Yalcouye (£4.5m) drop to the bench.
“I think Malick is an outstanding player for us. He proved it now in the first weeks, but it’s also important to manage the players’ energy and he played a lot of minutes in the last weeks. Therefore, I think there was definitely also a point of bringing like a freshness into the team. Besides that, Chema is just at a different height. I think we know that Arsenal can be good in every phase of the game, also regarding set pieces, so we want to be strong as well there.” – Fabian Hurzeler on benching Malick Yalcouye
The other alteration was enforced as Lewis Dunk (£4.5m) missed out.
His replacement, Struijk, had to come off late on.
“Lewis [Dunk] had a small issue yesterday in training with his neck. Nothing major.
“With Pascal Struijk, I think he felt a little his hamstring. I hope it’s nothing bad but then we have to see how he represents.” – Fabian Hurzeler
FIXTURES COMING THICK AND FAST FOR BRIGHTON
Unlike the other eight Premier League teams in Europe, Brighton haven’t begun their group stage campaign. The UEFA Conference League proper gets underway after Gameweek 6.
The schedule is about to get a lot busier, then, with Albion playing twice a week, every week – outside of international breaks – right through to 2027:
Above image from Legomané
There might be more management of minutes now, then, but you’d hope Hurzeler rolls out some of the second string against European minnows like Kauno Žalgiris, Jablonec and Universitatea Craiova, rather than run his regulars into the ground.
“After the international break, we have a lot of games. That will be really important that we manage the squad well.” – Fabian Hurzeler
