Arsenal secured the top spot in the Premier League after defeating Brighton & Hove Albion in Gameweek 18 of the 2025/2026 season.
The Gunners hosted Brighton at the Emirates Stadium, aiming to get back quickly to the top of the table, especially after the win of their direct competitor, when Manchester City beat Nottingham Forest away, a few hours before Arsenal’s game.
With this win, Arsenal ended this round with two points ahead of Man City in the Premier League title race.
“Every three days is going to be a challenge, and we are up for it.”
“I like the way we play and produce, and how willing the players are to take the initiative and the aggression to make things happen, because this is (Brighton) a hard team to play against.”-Mikel Arteta after the game.
This Arsenal Vs Brighton tactical analysis will break down some of Mikel Arteta’s tactics to secure these three points.
Arsenal Vs Brighton Lineups & Formations
Arsenal lined up with a 4-3-3 formation.
David Raya started in goal.
Arsenal’s back four was William Saliba and Piero Hincapié as right and left centre-backs, with Declan Rice and Myles Lewis-Skelly playing as right and left full-backs.
Martín Zubimendi started as the six, with Mikel Merino and Martin Ødegaard playing as eights.
Bukayo Saka was Arsenal’s right winger with Leandro Trossard on the left, and Viktor Gyökeres up front.
Arteta made three substitutions in the match.
Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Magalhães for Gyökeres and Lewis-Skelly at the 71st minute.
Gabriel Martinelli for Trossard at the 82nd minute.
Brighton lined up with a 3-4-3 formation.
Bart Verbruggen was between the sticks.
Jan Paul van Hecke, Lewis Dunk, and Diego Coppola operated as the centre-backs, with Ferdi Kadıoğlu and Maxim De Cuyper as right and left wing-backs.
Their midfielders were Yasin Ayari and Jack Hinshelwood
Up front, they had Diego Gómez and Brajan Gruda behind Georginio Rutter, who operated as a striker.
Fabian Hürzeler made three substitutions in the match.
Mats Wieffer and Yankuba Minteh for De Cuyper and Gruda at the 46th minute.
Danny Welbeck for Hinshelwood at the 75th minute.
Arsenal & Brighton Defending Philosophy
If we take an initial look at the statistics of both teams, several interesting numbers stand out and will help us to understand the story of how both teams approached this game.
One useful metric for understanding Arsenal’s and Brighton’s respective defensive philosophies is PPDA.
Looking at the PPDA (passes allowed per defensive action) for both teams, we can see how both sides aim to deny the opposition sustained possession and long attacking sequences, instead pressing to disrupt build-up and regain control quickly.
It is worth noting that the lower the PPDA value, the more effective a team is at limiting the opponent’s time and comfort on the ball.
With this in mind, we can see that this season, Brighton ranks third with a PPDA of 10.2, while Arsenal sits fifth with 10.8
These figures highlight that both teams are among the most proactive sides in the league when it comes to reducing the number of passes their opponents can complete in their build-up.
The High Turnover Battle
While PPDA helps explain how teams behave in their defensive phases, especially during high and mid pressing, another important metric that reflects both intention and effectiveness in winning the ball high up the pitch is high turnovers.
Looking at Premier League data this season, Brighton sits top of the league for high turnovers with 155, while Arsenal ranks eighth with 121
However, Arsenal’s figure can be misleading.
Due to their possession-based attacking approach, Arsenal spend more time on the ball, which naturally reduces the time and opportunities they have in defensive phases to generate high turnovers.
With this context in mind, we can now dive into Arsenal and Brighton’s high-pressing and turnover patterns in this game, focusing on the intentions of both teams during this phase and their ability to create a serious goal-scoring opportunity from it when needed.
Brighton High Pressing Scheme
In open-play build-up, Arsenal adopts a 3-2 structure, with Lewis-Skelly forming the first line alongside Saliba and Hincapié.
Ødegaard steps alongside Zubimendi, the six, to create the second line.
Rice leaves his role as right full-back on the flank and moves inside.
Behind him, Gómez and Gruda position themselves centrally to restrict Arsenal’s access through the middle.
To further deny progression through central areas, Hinshelwood steps up to stay close to Ødegaard.At the same time, Kadıoğlu pushes higher, preparing to press Lewis-Skelly if he receives a horizontal pass from Hincapié.
Hincapié plays a horizontal pass to Saliba, which triggers Gómez to step out and press.At the same moment, Rice moves wider to offer Saliba a passing option.
As Rice receives the ball, De Cuyper is already prepared to push high and apply immediate pressure.Brighton Play Forward From High Turnovers
With the same pressing scheme and all passing options closed, Brighton invites Raya to play long.
In addition, 
Hinshelwood has two options on the ball: a safe pass to De Cuyper or a more difficult one into Gruda.He chooses to act quickly and attempts the direct pass to Gruda.
This decision results in Brighton losing possession.
Here, in another example, Saka drops deep to receive Saliba’s pass, but he is immediately surrounded by Brighton players.
Rutter succeeds in winning the ball.
Rutter plays a direct pass to Gruda to quickly initiate the transition.
Gruda slows the tempo of the transition, plays the ball back to Coppola, and Brighton circulates possession to begin a more controlled attacking phase.Brighton High Pressing Quality
If Arsenal’s goalkeeper Raya becomes involved, Rutter presses him while closing one of the centre-backs, in this case Saliba.Gruda covers the free centre-back, Gómez tracks Zubimendi, Ayari marks the second Arsenal six, here Merino, and Ødegaard remains tightly followed by Hinshelwood.
With Ødegaard’s movement, Raya finds him with a vertical pass that is difficult to control, especially with Brighton players surrounding him centrally and Kadıoğlu stepping in to support Hinshelwood.
However, as Ayari leaves Merino, Ødegaard finds a simple lay-off option, allowing Arsenal to escape Brighton’s pressure.“We played without self-belief in the first half. We didn’t have the belief in the pressing, we didn’t have the courage to press like we wanted to press”-Fabian Hürzeler after the game.
Arsenal High-Pressing Scheme
For Brighton, the wide centre-backs split, with Dunk dropping into the six-yard box to play to the goalkeeper, Verbruggen, and Coppola positioned on the right edge of the penalty area.
The central centre-back, van Hecke, pushes higher up the pitch.
Outside the box and centrally, Ayari and Hinshelwood operate as the two sixes.
Kadıoğlu pushes high on the right side, out of the frame, while De Cuyper holds a deeper position on the left.
Verbruggen begins Brighton’s build-up with a pass out to Kadıoğlu on the right side.
Kadıoğlu drops to receive the ball and sets it back to Coppola.
Under pressure from Trossard, Coppola opts to play long toward Ayari and Rutter.
Arsenal regains possession from the long ball.
In open play, Arsenal aim to remove the danger early rather than allowing Brighton to establish short passing sequences.
Saka holds his position, Trossard blocks the passing lane to the right from Verbruggen, and Gyökeres presses the goalkeeper while shadowing van Hecke.
In this scenario, Verbruggen is forced to play long.
Arsenal deal with the long ball and regain control of the situation.
Brighton attempts to find a solution through Van Hecke, who initially starts wide before moving centrally, stepping out of Gyökeres’s cover shadow to receive the pass from the goalkeeper.
This movement allows Brighton to escape Arsenal’s pressure.
Arsenal Use High Turnovers To Score
Another method Brighton uses is pushing the right centre-back higher to draw Trossard out, before van Hecke positions himself on the right edge of the box to receive a wall pass from Ayari via the goalkeeper.
Here, Verbruggen finds van Hecke with a vertical pass played through Arsenal’s pressure.
Hincapié follows Gruda as he drops deeper, looking to receive the ball or lay it off to a teammate facing forward.
Hincapié wins possession and plays the ball to Rice, who immediately finds Saka.
Saka drives forward with the ball before releasing a pass to Ødegaard.
Ødegaard finishes into the back of the net, scoring Arsenal’s first goal of the match following a high turnover.
“Arsenal’s first goal was a really bad execution of the Build-up plan. I think we are a team that tries to build up from the back, that’s how we try to show our identity, no matter where we play. Sometimes it fails, it shouldn’t fail, but it’s part of the process.”-Fabian Hürzeler after the game.
Conclusion
From what we saw, another interesting layer is what both teams do after regaining possession high up the pitch.
Before this game, Brighton ranked 14th in the league for the percentage of high turnovers that ended with a shot, at 14.19 percent, while Arsenal ranked 16th with 12.40 percent.
However, Arsenal were able to use their high turnovers effectively in this game, not only creating shots on Brighton’s goal but also scoring their first goal from one of these situations.
After the match, both teams were level in terms of goals scored from high turnovers this season, with two goals each.
