Why Brighton are Arsenal’s bogey team: Seagulls share unique record against Gunners with Liverpool and Manchester United as Mikel Arteta’s men face Premier League title test

Forget Manchester City, Brighton are one of the most fearsome teams Arsenal could come up against this weekend.

Not only because of their brilliant 2022/23 campaign or scintillating brand of football – but their exceptional record against the Gunners.

AFP

By the time Mikel Arteta’s men travel to the Amex Stadium on Saturday, their lead at the top of the Premier League table could be cut to two points.

Champions City face Everton at 3pm before attention turns to the south coast for the top-flight’s final game of the year.

And it is a match which pits Arsenal against one of their least favourite opponents.

Brighton are one of just three teams that Arsenal have lost (4) more Premier League games than they’ve won (3) against, along with Manchester United (W17 L26) and Liverpool (W17 L25).

The Seagulls won their last two meetings against the Gunners and did the double over them during the 2019/20 campaign.

That season, the fixture turned into a bit of a grudge match after an altercation between Matteo Guendouzi and Neal Maupay.

Bernd Leno was stretchered off the pitch in the first-half after he suffered a nasty knee injury following an aerial challenge from Maupay, who was blamed by the goalkeeper and his teammates for the incident.

The French striker stayed on the pitch, though, and he later clinched a late, late victory, scoring in the fifth minute of injury time.

But the match ended in a scrap between both sets of players after Guendouzi reacted to Maupay’s winning goal by grabbing the forward by the throat.

It was later claimed Guendouzi had been taunting Maupay and a number of the other Brighton players throughout the game, reportedly branding them ‘s***’ and bragging about the Arsenal stars’ wages compared to theirs.

Maupay, now at Everton, urged the Arsenal players to ‘learn some humility’ – and they have become a more complete team in the years that followed.

But it is this context which makes the trip to Brighton a serious test of their title credentials.