Fabian Hurzeler has iterated that Brighton must “stay humble” after their shock 3-0 victory against Premier League champions, Arsenal.
Brighton marked their 125th anniversary match with a shock win over Mikel Arteta’s Gunners through goals from Pascal Gross, Charalampos Kostoulas and Andres, which lifted the Seagulls up to third in the table and two points off Arsenal who slipped to second on goal difference behind Manchester City.
Hurzeler post-match praised his team for their performance especially less than 72 hours after their 3-2 comeback victory at Manchester United in the Carabao Cup.
“I always try to focus on the performance instead of the result. The performance was really good from the beginning because we did the easy things right. We won our personal duels. We won the first tackle. We won the first throw and the first corner.
“We were really intense when Arsenal tried to play and we tried to stop their fluidity. Besides that, we had a good balance between controlling the game in possession and having good defensive stability.
“So I have to give a lot of praise to my players, especially after this tough week with a lot of travelling. To show this performance shows a lot of character. They should enjoy today.”
Hurzeler however iterated that his Seagulls now must stay grounded and learn about how they’ve earned this specific result without getting too overambitious looking at their current league standing.
“I think it’s very important to stay humble now and we won’t speak about the missed chances. I think Arsenal also had a few chances. I think it’s very important to enjoy this moment, but also understand why we have this moment, why we are successful.
“Because in the end we always need to come back to our foundation, come back to our roots, and that’s always like being brilliant in the basics, being an intense football team and to really trust each other. And I think one key today was when one went into a personal duel, you always had the feeling that my teammate was behind me.
“Like this, you build trust. Sometimes we speak a lot about tactical approach, but in the end it’s can you rely on each other on the pitch? Can you trust each other? Does everyone know his role in set pieces? Can you always be alive in every situation and moment in the game? That’s what my players did today, and impressively.”
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