🚨🎙️| Arsene Wenger slams Manchester City over 114 breaches and calls for the club to be relegated to League Two
🗣️“Let’s be honest about what happened to Arsenal.
For years, Arsenal were being told to compete with Manchester City. Spend wisely. Build properly. Follow the rules. Develop players. Be patient.
Meanwhile, we’re now sitting here talking about Manchester City being found guilty on 114 of the 115 Premier League charges brought against them.
And people still want Arsenal fans to act like none of that mattered?
How are you supposed to look at Arsenal’s title battles with City and not ask questions?
Arsenal spent years chasing a team that was allegedly breaking financial rules while building one of the strongest squads English football has ever seen.
And then Arsenal fans are told, ‘You should have beaten them.’
Beat them with what?
Arsenal were trying to build within the rules while City were allegedly operating outside them. If those breaches affected how that team was constructed, then you can’t simply erase that context from the history of those title races.
There were Arsenal players, managers and supporters giving everything to win the Premier League while City were winning trophies year after year.
So yes, I’m angry.
Because Arsenal could have had more.
And if the findings ultimately show that those breaches materially affected competitive sporting outcomes, then the Premier League has to take that seriously.
You cannot tell every other club to respect the rules and then treat violations at this scale like a parking ticket.
If the punishment is severe enough, so be it.
Relegation? Points deductions? Titles being reviewed? Whatever the independent process determines under the rules should be dealt with properly.
But one thing Arsenal fans are allowed to say is this:
WE SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAD TO COMPETE AGAINST A CLUB ACCUSED OF THIS SCALE OF FINANCIAL BREACHES IN THE FIRST PLACE.
And City fans can laugh all they want.
But if Arsenal lost Premier League titles by the smallest margins while competing against a team now found guilty of 114 charges, you cannot expect Gunners to just shrug and say:
‘Ah well, football is football.’
NO.
If the rules were broken, there have to be consequences.
And if the consequences are serious enough to send Manchester City down the divisions, then so be it.
Arsenal didn’t fail to compete.
Maybe Arsenal were competing in a competition where the playing field wasn’t as level as everyone thought.”
🚨 Fabian Hurzeler on Brighton not given a penalty by the referee following Gabriel Magalhaes and Ezri Konsa foul on Maxim De Cuyper
Reporter 🗣️ Fabian that's a massive win against Arsenal the current Champions of England that was a dominant win what did you tell your players before the game.
Fabian Hurzeler 🗣️ Mikel Arteta's Arsenal team is a very strong team, beating them today means we can do beyond our expectations this season.
Before the match I told my players to play with a free mind and believe in themselves that they can beat Arsenal. I told them to see Arsenal as ordinary as another Premier League teams. That's it.
Reporter 🗣️ Goals from Kostoulas, Pascal Grob and Chema Andres was enough to win it against this Arsenal team. Do you think your team deserve a penalty following the foul on De Cuyper by Gabriel Magalhaes ?
Fabian Hurzeler 🗣️ That's a clear penalty,I genuinely don't understand why it wasn't given. He clearly dribbled past Gabriel Magalhaes and Konsa.
Both of them brought him down without touching the ball,David Raya gathered but nothing was done about it.
PGMOL needs to step up this season because just like last season Refs are always officiating to favour Arsenal.
🚨 Brighton coach Fabian Hurzeler on the altercation between Declan Rice and Malick Yalcouyé:
Reporter: “What did you make of the incident between Rice and Yalcouyé?”
Brighton coach: “For me, it should have been a straight red card for Rice. Yalcouyé made the initial challenge, yes, but Declan retaliated, and that is where the referee has to draw the line. You cannot punish one action and ignore the reaction simply because the second player is a bigger name.
We saw something similar in the Manchester City match with Foden and Bruno. The player who retaliates can still be punished, regardless of what happened before it.
I understand the emotion of the game, but if we want consistency, the standard has to be the same for everyone.
You cannot say ‘he was provoked’ and use that as an excuse for retaliation. If it’s a red-card offence, it’s a red-card offence.”
🚨 Thierry Henry on Arsenal’s 3–0 at Brighton:
🗣️ Henry: “This is Arsenal’s first 3–0 league defeat in three years, and it showed something people didn’t want to say.
When the game gets away from this team, they can look ordinary.
Ødegaard was poor. Loose with the ball. Couldn’t get them playing. Brighton punished every cheap pass.
Saka wasn’t in it. Havertz couldn’t touch the game. The big players went missing when the score asked a question.
And I look at Arteta. Why isn’t Lewis-Skelly starting a game that needed legs? Brighton ran through that midfield. Guimarães and Rice got outworked. That’s the story in the middle.
Raya had conceded one Premier League goal all season. Tonight that comfort got ripped up.
Three goals. No answer.
Title talk is easy when you’re winning ugly. Tonight they looked like a team that can be hunted.
Brighton didn’t just beat Arsenal. They made them look average.”
🚨 Paul Scholes reacts to Gabriel escaping a yellow card after THAT foul against Brighton.
🗣️ Scholes: “How is that not a yellow card? The Brighton players are standing there wondering if they’re watching the same game as everyone else. You can’t make challenges like that and simply walk away.”
The Brighton players were FURIOUS after seeing no card given.
“VAR can check everything except common sense.” 💀
🚨🗣 Jamie Carragher on Brighton vs Arsenal match:
"Arsenal may have the best defense in the league or in Europe but, they have one of the worst attack in the league, they had zero shot on target in the first half"
"No one remembers the last time Arsenal scored five goals, which is a major concern for a team like Arsenal"
"Brighton dominated the whole first half"
🚨🎙️ Ian Wright on Brighton & Hove Albion after the win against Arsenal:
🗣️“What a team they’ve built here. You see them sell all the key players in the summer and somehow find a way to get something out of the players who are available.”
“They beat Manchester United in midweek, and when you expect the momentum to slow down, they go and beat Arsenal. That’s unheard of.”
“And again, it proves why the Premier League is the best. I don’t think you get results like this too often in other leagues.”
“What impresses me most is the mentality. They don’t look at the name on the shirt and panic. They just play their football.”
“Brighton are becoming that team nobody wants to face. You think you’ve got them figured out, and then they find another way to hurt you.”
“That’s not luck anymore. That’s a team with belief.”
🚨Rio Ferdinand on Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat to Brighton:
🗣️ Rio Ferdinand: “This is Arsenal’s first 3-0 defeat in three years, and I think it exposes something we’ve been reluctant to say this Arsenal team can look very ordinary when the game gets away from them.
Ødegaard was poor today. He kept giving the ball away, couldn’t get Arsenal playing and Brighton were punishing every loose pass.
Saka wasn’t at it either. Havertz couldn’t influence the game. You had Arsenal’s big players simply disappearing when the team needed them.
And then I look at Arteta. I’m asking myself why Lewis-Skelly didn’t start this game. Arsenal needed energy and aggression in that midfield and Brighton completely outran them.
Bruno Guimarães and Declan Rice? Outworked. Outrun. Brighton made that midfield look ordinary.
And David Raya has now conceded more than one goal in a Premier League game this season. That tells you how comfortable Arsenal’s defence has been before today, but Brighton have ripped that comfort apart.
Three goals. No response.
For all the talk about Arsenal being title contenders, tonight they looked like a very ordinary football team.
Brighton didn’t just beat Arsenal.
They made them look average.”
🚨 Roy Keane on Brighton's Dominance against Arsenal
🗣️ “Wait, wait… a set-piece goal against Arsenal? You don’t see that every day.
Brighton scored, Arsenal had no response. They scored again and again but still no response. The worrying thing is Brighton are playing like they want a fourth and a fifth goal.
After what they did to Manchester United in midweek, I wanted to see if it was just one of those nights.
Now we’re seeing it again against Arsenal.
Saka, Rice, Havertz - Arsenal have quality all over the pitch. But today, it looks like there are Brighton players in blue everywhere.
Something is happening with Brighton. And if this is the start of their season, the Premier League is going to be very interesting.”
🚨 Thierry Henry on Fabian Hurzeler’s Brighton:
“You look at Brighton’s team sheet and, with respect, you’re not immediately thinking, ‘How are we going to survive against these players?’
Then the game starts and you understand.
Everybody runs. Everybody presses. Everybody wants the ball. You press one player and somebody else appears in the space. After 20 minutes, players you weren’t worried about before kick off suddenly look like they have another level.
I watched them beat Coventry 5-0. Then they went to Old Trafford, went 2-0 down and came back to win. Now they’re doing this against Arsenal.
And this is where I have to give Hurzeler enormous credit. Arsenal’s defence is not a defence you normally play around for fun. They had conceded once in the Premier League all season before today. Once.
Brighton looked at that and apparently nobody told them they were supposed to be impressed.
They keep coming. They keep running. They keep playing. There’s no fear in them.
That’s coaching.
Hurzeler hasn’t collected eleven superstars. He’s created a team where you look at the names before kick off and think you should be fine, then 45 minutes later you’re wondering where he found all these players.
That’s what I love about them. Brighton don’t need you to fear their team sheet. They make you fear them once the football starts.”
𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝟑-𝟎 𝐀𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥
Arsenal suffer their biggest Premier League defeat since May 2023, which was also against Brighton and Hove Albion (3-0 at Emirates Stadium).
Brighton's exceptional start to the season continues. They move up to third in the table.
🚨🗣 Fabian Hurzeler on winning Arsenal 3-0:
"That's the easiest match we've played this season, there was no threats from the Arsenal team, I would've taken a nap during the game but I know that's not proper and didn't do it"
"My boys were dominant over the champions of England and I am very impressed with that performance, kudos to them"