Arsenal fail to build on derby win with toothless Brighton stalemate

The legendary Real Madrid icon Alfred Di Stefano once opined: "a game without a goal is like a day without sunshine."

Brighton and Arsenal gave the sodden Amex Stadium spectators two for the price of one with Saturday evening's goalless draw that swiftly derailed any faint hope of momentum building for the toothless visitors.

"Hopefully not!" Arsenal's manager Mikel Arteta unnervingly offered when challenged about the continuation of his side's rollercoaster swings in form pre-game. While the weekend's 0-0 draw (or any for that matter) can scarcely be described in such raucous terms (pulsating at best), Arsenal have once again relapsed into a tediously familiar bout of inconsistency.

Having become just the fourth team in the history of England's top flight to open a campaign with three straight defeats immediately followed by three wins, Arsenal's commanding 3-1 victory over Tottenham has been rapidly undermined by a goalless draw with Brighton.

Dominating possession and outshooting Arsenal 21 to eight, Graham Potter's side had an unwanted reversion of their own; sparing the Gunners thanks to a woeful string of wayward finishes - sending just two of their attempts tamely on target.

In a reversal of roles from last weekend's north London derby, it was Arsenal that looked thoroughly swamped in midfield. While the Gunners did at least position two players in the middle - as opposed to Tottenham's unique approach of playing none in there - Thomas Partey and Albert Sambi Lokonga, were outnumbered in the middle as Leandro Trossard, Jakub Moder, Adam Lallana and Pascal Gross.

At the other end, a front four that had looked so devastating during the first half blitz against Spurs were divorced from much of the action by Brighton's stifling press. Limiting Arsenal to just 76% pass completion rate, the Seagulls applied a defensive action for around every eight or nine passes the Gunners attempted according to UnderStat - that's a lot of intensity.

Martin Odegaard and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were particularly isolated through the middle. While Arsenal's skipper completed as many passes (six) as his replacement Alexandre Lacazette did in 18 minutes, Odegaard was restricted to just 28 touches all night before getting the hook an hour in.

In more than half of their seven Premier League games so far, Arsenal have failed to find the net, equalling their worst scoring start to a top flight campaign since George Graham's maiden season at the helm in 1986 (per Opta) with a measly five goals.

Failing to progress the ball to the side's theoretical creator-in-chief and primary goalscorer begins to explain some of these attacking woes.

While he may endure a decidedly fractious relationship with the fanbase, Xhaka's ability to simply move the ball through the thirds can't be underestimated. The injured Swiss midfielder accounted for a whopping 20% of the total final third passes Arsenal completed last season - the third-highest proportion in the division.

Arteta was typically blunt (and, as it proved, accurate) when he described the absence of the most used player during his tenure as a 'big, big loss' going into the match.

Despite the biblical conditions, it wasn't entirely doom and gloom (on the pitch) for the Gunners. Aaron Ramsdale - in spite of an early spill - kept his third clean sheet in just his fourth Premier League appearance for his new side, stretching out a meaty paw to deny Arsenal's repeated punisher Neal Maupay late in the game.

Amid some skittish flickers, Ben White and Gabriel Magalhaes held firm against the aerially prolific Brighton's set piece bombardment, at least playing an off-putting role in many of those misses.

Emile Smith Rowe showed flashes of the incision that had been so painfully absent after he was shunted centrally following Odegaard's departure. But Bukayo Saka, Arsenal's perennial shining light, limped off in the final ten minutes.

Arteta - clearly ground down by the habitual reaction of social media - conceded that, at a club of Arsenal's (historic, not current) standing: "every defeat is a crisis and it should be a crisis."

Brighton's lacking accuracy largely avoided another of those crises yet, just when they threatened to string together a run of consistent form, the Gunners slipped back into their pattern of unpredictability.

Under the current regime there seems to be only one conclusion that can be made about this side -Arteta's Arsenal are consistent in patches.