When Roberto de Zerbi is your manager you will have days like these; days when the house of cards collapses, when the players get caught in their own intricate web of ideas and are made to feel dizzy by the simplest of tricks.
Brighton supporters already know to accept a 5-1 defeat at home to Everton as part of the fun, or at least an inescapable price to pay for dazzling attacking football that confuses opponents far more often than Brighton’s own players.
An always-unlikely Champions League hunt has been emphatically ended by Sean Dyche and his pinpoint counter-attacks but Brighton can still make this an unforgettable season – and can still have a huge effect on the title race, with Arsenal on Sunday and Manchester City ten days later.
Arsenal present an entirely different kind of challenge to Everton.
Mikel Arteta might look to steal a few ideas from Dyche, namely counter-attacking quickly down the flanks when the opportunity arises, but largely Arteta’s high pressing and control of possession will give Brighton the sort of challenge they are far more comfortable facing.
It should be an exciting end-to-end match – and one that Brighton can definitely win.
De Zerbi’s tempo-shifting can isolate Jorginho
One of the most impressive aspects of Brighton’s tactics under De Zerbi is the way they look to draw teams forward with short and risky passing out from the back before suddenly changing the tempo with a longer, vertical pass into the forwards.
A wide-angle look at their formation from goal kicks often reveals just how unusual this is: Brighton will have six players in their own third and five in the forward line, leaving an empty 30-yard gap between them.
By drawing the press, only to sweep a long pass into the forwards, a whole area of the pitch is bypassed and Brighton can dribble forward almost as if on the counter-attack, having taken most of the opposition out of the game.
Everton’s low block and rigid shape prevented this from working last weekend, whereas Arsenal are more vulnerable than most – and not just because the hosts will want to push up and dominate at the Emirates.
Jorginho came into the team for the 2-0 victory at Newcastle, partly because Thomas Partey has been under-performing and partly for his control under pressure.
He had more touches (70) and passes (53) than anyone else, calmly recycling possession to evade Newcastle’s attempts to unsettle Arsenal, thus allowing Arteta’s side to dominate the game. He will be needed again on Sunday to cope with similar pressure from Brighton.
But Jorginho simply isn’t as good as Partey at cutting off passing lines or intercepting the ball, and therefore the downgrade in this area offers Brighton the chance to overwhelm Jorginho with one of those piercing vertical passes.
This could just as easily happen during any other phase of play, given how many bodies De Zerbi crams into the middle of the pitch.
Against Everton, the full-backs pushed into central midfield, in turn releasing midfielders to join the front three in a very narrow 2-3-2-3 formation that crowds the centre. Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister, Pascal Gross, and Deniz Undav will be dancing around Jorginho and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
A more conservative defensive shape needed
Then again, it would be a mistake to be quite so committed to attack at the Emirates.
In fact it was De Zerbi’s experimental shape that allowed Dwight McNeil, Abdoulaye Doucoure, and Alex Iwobi to find so much space on the break.
Even one of the Brighton centre-backs would go forward and, with multiple players in untraditional positions (full-backs as central midfielders, central midfielders moving into the forward line), Brighton could not cope in the transition.
They often had just one defender back, leaving everyone else to scramble back as Everton countered, inevitably meaning runners could not be tracked.
Consequently De Zerbi will need to be a little bit more conservative to prevent Martin Odegaard or Granit Xhaka from quickly releasing Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli down the wings, something Arsenal are happy to do if the opportunity arises.
For Brighton to win, they will need to show greater discipline at centre-back and, most likely, hold one of their full-backs to form a back three during periods of Brighton possession.
This should help them stretch wide enough to close down Saka and Martinelli, avoiding the sort of disastrous disorganisation that allowed Everton to flourish.
Fast start and targeting Zinchenko
It is difficult to predict many of the more detailed tactical elements of this match because of how often De Zerbi changes his system to exploit opposition weaknesses, although aside from the broader points above – reservation in the back line, and an emphasis on crowding Jorginho in those false transitions – there are two other things Brighton must do.
First: a fast start.
Newcastle raced out of the blocks in Arsenal’s last match, almost capitalising on another small wobble as Jacob Murphy hit the post amid the Gunners being out-fought and out-run in the early stages.
We know De Zerbi likes his players to go all-in from kick-off, and that is exactly the approach needed to pounce on any Arsenal jitters on Sunday.
Brighton must also look at Zinchenko’s side as the main source of attack, particularly in the transition, when he can get caught between his midfield and left-back roles.
He is not the best one-on-one defender, either, and therefore De Zerbi should drop teenager Facundo Buonanotte – who has struggled in his last two – for Solly March, with Julio Encisco back in for Undaz.
These two can combine on the right hand side, doubling up on Zinchenko and catching Arsenal as they scramble to move between formations.
Even doing all that, this will be one of Brighton’s most difficult games of the season, and straight after a 5-1 defeat they may be unable to rise to the occasion. But we know Arsenal are vulnerable to quick starts and fearless attacking performances.
De Zerbi has the players, and the tactics, to secure his team’s place in the top seven – and end the title race.
