Why Arsenal’s defeat at Brighton was actually perfect timing for Mikel Arteta

Arsenal were well and truly beaten by Brighton this weekend and for most fans, there was little to take away from it in a positive light.

The Seagulls exposed some of Arsenal’s shortcomings and for manager Mikel Arteta, it will have been a shock to the system.

Nevertheless, there is always something to learn from games like these and while the defeat might sting, it could actually help Arsenal in the long run.

Arsenal were always going to lose eventually but this is ideal timing

Mikel Arteta does not want to lose any game of football and he was rightfully unimpressed by how his Arsenal team capitulated yesterday.

However, in terms of the timing of the defeat, it actually couldn’t be any better.

With a mammoth three week international break now upon us, it’s actually perfect for Arteta in giving him the time to analyse and look at just what went wrong.

Furthermore, it’s also an opportunity for the game not to simply sit in the memory and take over the feeling of the club. Instead, players will go away on international duty, distracted and not thinking of what went wrong at The AMEX.

From there, Arteta can then welcome his troops back with open arms with the slate wiped clean.

Every successful team has setbacks throughout a season. The key is in how those teams bounce back from the setbacks.

Arteta now has plenty of time to put in the work to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Couple that with a few players getting a bit more fitness into them before things resume against Leeds in October, and this defeat at Brighton should hopefully be a thing of the distant past pretty soon.