Twitter Reacts as Defeat to Brighton Leaves Arsenal on Worst Winless Run Since 1977

Arsenal stretched their wait for a victory to nine games as Brighton stunned the Gunners with a 2-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday night.​ That's the club's worst winless run since 1977.

Before all that though, the announcement of the two starting lineups attracted the commentary of some of the brightest and best on social media.

Another game, another day on the substitutes bench for Nicolas Pépé and Kieran Tierney...

When kick-off eventually arrived, the empty seats that were littered around the Emirates Stadium were hard to ignore.

It might not have been on the level of the bleak turnout against Eintracht Frankfurt in Unai Emery's final game in charge of the club, but it was still indicative of the lack of fan engagement in the red half of north London currently.

​​The highlight of a particularly underwhelming opening 20 minutes - which principally consisted of various Arsenal players being caught offside - were Lucas Torreira's sneaky defensive tactics.

With Pascal Gross standing over a free kick, Torreira stealthily hid behind the Arsenal wall, ready to fling himself across the floor if the German sneaked it under the crowd of players.  

It's great to see that level of ingenious commitment to the cause.

Torreira's antics aside, Arsenal fans were pretty fuming by their side's first-half performance. The Gunners looked lethargic, were misplacing passes and generally lacked any cohesion going forward. 

It was no surprise then, when Adam Webster smashed home a deserved opening goal for Brighton after confusion from a corner. 

The goal sparked a reaction out of the Arsenal players for the remainder of the first half and Joe Willock should have scored just before the interval. 

Presented with a free header, Willock nodded the ball straight at Mat Ryan - his final act of an extremely underwhelming opening 45 minutes. 

There were calls for the youngster to be replaced by Arsenal fans on Twitter.

​​Freddie Ljungberg appeared to be listening to these disgruntled Gunners supporters with Willock indeed being swapped for Pépé at half time. 

With their record signing introduced, many Arsenal fans were convinced that there said were about to witness a famous comeback. 

And maybe they were right? Just five minutes after his introduction the hosts had levelled up the scores courtesy of a Alexandre Lacazette header.

​​Arsenal continued to create opportunities and even had the ball in the back of the net through David Luiz, who fired home from a pinpoint Mesut Ozil free kick. 

A wry smile from Luiz after the 'goal' revealed all though, with VAR rightly ruling the strike out for offside.

Still, it fooled a number of Gunners fans into thinking they'd taken the lead. 

Arsenal would be made to rue their missed chances as Neal Maupay's flicked header gave Brighton the lead for the second time with ten minutes to play. 

The Gunners huffed and puffed be could not find a way past the Seagulls stubborn defence in the closing stages. 

This means that the home side have now not tasted victory since October when they defeated Vitória S.C in the Europa League. 

They've played eight games since then... in what is their longest wait for a victory since 1977.