5 talking points as Arsenal humbled by Brighton and suffer top four setback

Arsenal's hopes of Champions League qualification took a huge dent at home to Brighton & Hove Albion after a surprise defeat.

Leandro Trossard sparked panic inside the Emirates when he opened the scoring just shy of the half-hour mark with an emphatic right-footed finish from close range. The Gunners defence could only stand and watch as the ball trickled back to the Belgian for the game's opener.

Arsenal thought they had levelled things on the stroke of half-time when Gabriel Martinelli nodded home, but the Brazilian was deemed to be in an offside position after a VAR check that felt like it took an age.

The hosts failed to respond in any kind of meaningful fashion and were punished for their lacklustre efforts when the Seagulls doubled their advantage mid-way through the second half. Enock Mwepu fired home a fantastic effort from the edge of the area beyond the despairing dive of Aaron Ramsdale.

Martin Odegaard pulled one back with less than four minutes to go from long-range, but it proved to be too little too late for the Gunners.

Mirror Football has analysed the game's main talking points.

Top four hopes in tatters

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After Monday night's dismal showing at Selhurst Park, Arsenal needed to show their resilience and respond with a victory.

Instead, they succumbed to a second successive defeat in feeble fashion to a side that have found both goals and wins so hard to come by in recent weeks.

While there are obvious caveats in regards to the fact both Partey and Tierney missed out with injuries, their replacements left plenty to be desired - as did the usual starters.

The hosts looked bereft of ideas all game and that will be a huge concern to Arteta with a trip to Southampton up next.

The result means Arsenal gift Spurs the chance to go three points in front if they register a win at Villa Park later on Saturday evening and put some daylight between themselves and the Gunners as the race for fourth takes yet another twist.

VAR in the headlines again

The debate surrounding whether video technology does more harm than good will continue to rage on after Martinelli's header was chalked off after an incredibly lengthy review.

Both sets of players were left in limbo for more than three minutes as David Coote waited for Chris Kavanagh to give him some kind of guidance as to what he should give.

The situation stemmed from an Arsenal corner that was nodded back across goal on to the head of Martinelli - who was adjudged to have finished the move from an offside position.

Swathes of Gunners players protested the decision but it was to no avail, as Martinelli's passionate dart to the touchline in celebration was in vain. The lines were hardly clear in the subsequent replays of the incident, but Arsenal can hardly use the decision as any kind of excuse.

Arsenal attacking woes come to the fore again

The Gunners desperation for a new striker is well-documented, but just how badly they need one appears to become clearer with each passing game.

Alexandre Lacazette was a passenger for the majority of the game, unable to stamp any kind of authority on the contest despite the Gunners overwhelming amount of possession.

At one stage of the first half, Arsenal boasted more than 72% possession - yet Lacazette failed to muster a single chance of note, such was the dismal level of his movement off the ball.

The attacking burden was left to Arteta's talented array of young, vibrant midfielders like Gabriel Martinelli, Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka - though they also barely troubled their visitors.

Thomas Partey's absence felt

The Ghanian looks set to miss at least the next few weeks with injury in news that is so damning to Arsenal it could well derail their entire hopes of a top-four finish.

Partey is integral to almost everything the Gunners do and is so often the foundation of every positive passage of play, his absence was sorely felt by an Arsenal midfield that struggled to convince at times.

Albert Sambi Lokonga was tasked with filling in and while the Belgian clearly has plenty of promise, he is some way off Partey's level - as exhibited by a few stray passes early on in the game.

Arsenal's central midfield pairing of Lokonga and Martin Odegaard did not have much to aim at and as a result many of their passes ended up going back to the likes of Ben White and Gabriel.

The display is one that will hardly give fans or coaching staff alike any confidence that Arsenal can finish the season strong without Partey.

Arteta's Xhaka de cision shows lack of faith

Much of the pre-match discourse was centred around whether Arteta would keep Nuno Tavares in the starting eleven after his disastrous showing away at Crystal Palace on Monday evening.

In what could be incredibly damaging to Tavares' confidence moving forward, his manager opted to bench him in favour of Granit Xhaka who was deployed as a makeshift left-back instead.

Xhaka is hardly a stranger to the position given he spent the tail-end of last term playing there while Kieran Tierney nursed yet another injury in his Arsenal career.

Tavares was purchased so that a similar situation did not rear its head once again this season, yet the Arsenal boss clearly has such little faith in the Portuguese defender he would sooner revert back to Xhaka.

The Swiss international dealt with Pascal Gross well for the most part, but his trademark precision passing was missed in the middle of the park.