By Opta Analyst | Created at 2026-09-18 12:11:53 | Updated at 2026-09-18 14:18:32
2 hours ago
Brighton’s pressing numbers have been off the charts in the Premier League this season. Will they continue to earn plaudits this weekend, or will Arsenal knock them down a peg or two?
There was a brief moment in time when Fabian Hürzeler’s position at Brighton was beginning to look insecure.
On Valentine’s Day this year, a 3-0 FA Cup defeat away to Liverpool made it four defeats in five games across all competitions and just two wins in 14, a run stretching back to the start of December. With boos becoming increasingly noticeable, their affair seemed to be on the rocks.
Hürzeler always maintained he felt nothing but support from his bosses, though their slide was unmistakable. Had it continued or become even worse, it’s not inconceivable to suggest the club’s faith would’ve been shaken.
But their trust was justified. After that loss to Liverpool, Brighton won seven of their next 10 matches (all in the Premier League) to climb from 14th to sixth, eventually finishing eighth; they’ve only finished higher once, when they came sixth in 2022-23.
When Brighton then lost several important players over the summer, fans would’ve been forgiven for some trepidation – or at least they would have had they supported almost any other club.
With Brighton, there’s always an assumption they’ll come back even stronger by unearthing another few potential superstars. Luka Vuskovic, Malick Yalcouyé and Charalampos Kostoulas are just three of the young talents who’ve shined during the early weeks of 2026-27.
Their start to new campaign suggests the gloomy atmosphere around the club at the turn of the year is firmly in the past. They sit fifth in the Premier League with seven points after four matches and are looking forward to an EFL Cup fourth-round clash with Manchester City after coming from behind to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
It’s not just results ensuring Brighton are catching the eye, though. People are taking note partly because of their intoxicating high press and, linked to that, their remarkably aggressive team shape. That might all sound a bit nerdy, but the positivity and intensity they are playing with is genuinely fascinating to watch.
Granted, Man Utd’s team on Wednesday featured two young centre-backs, but either way they struggled to cope with Brighton’s ravenous harrying. That directly led to Pascal Groß’s equaliser as they came from 2-0 down to win 3-2.
United certainly weren’t the first to feel the heat. Brighton have made every opponent they’ve faced this term feel uncomfortable.
There were two great examples of them forcing costly errors high up the pitch in the 4-0 win over Aston Villa.
For the first goal, Pau Torres received a throw-in but retreated towards the corner due to the pressure on him. Stuck in two minds about where to release the ball, he ended up laying the ball on a plate for Maxim De Cuyper, who’d darted into a position that cut off the pass to Victor Lindelöf while ensuring he could apply pressure if Marco Bizot received the ball.
He got a little lucky when his right-footed shot hit the post and went in off Lindelöf, though Hürzeler would argue Brighton created the luck through hard work.
A little later, Yasin Ayari robbed João Gomes on the edge of his own box to tee up Jack Hinshelwood for an easy finish to make it 4-0 in the 31st minute.
Gomes should have done better, of course, but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that this was a specific trap set by Brighton, as they’d pushed numbers up but allowed Gomes just enough space and time to encourage a pass to him.
By the time he had received the ball, passing routes in his immediate field of vision were practically all closed off, and Brighton still had two more players in midfield ready to jump.
When Hinshelwood took the shot, Brighton had four players in the box to Villa’s three (and Gomes, in a heap on the floor, was out of the equation).
Outnumbering their opposition is a key theme. It’s not that Brighton constantly hunt in packs, but they are effective at picking their moments to surround opposing players, particularly in wider areas or the channel.
The fact that their pressure heat map below shows less activity in the central areas of the pitch supports this.
It also demonstrates how high they press, with Brighton’s most intense concentration of pressures coming in the opposition’s penalty area.
Brighton’s 156 pressures in the opposition’s penalty area is bettered by just four teams this term. But given Brighton have so much of the ball and therefore have tallied the fewest overall pressures, their 14.2% being localised to the opponent’s box is the highest.
Possession is obviously an important factor to consider when discussing pressure. Brighton sitting lowest in the rankings for overall pressures (1,104) might suggest one thing, but they’ve had considerably more possession than any other team this term at 71.1%; if they’re spending less than 30% of their matches without the ball, they’re obviously not going to rank high for overall pressures.
But 52.7% of their opponents’ touches this term have been under high pressure (a Brighton player within two metres of them), the greatest proportion of any team, and evidence of how hard they work when they don’t have the ball.
Arguably what facilitates this the most is their shape when in possession, which brings us back to Brighton outnumbering – or at least matching – the opposition’s defence. As the graphic below highlights, they essentially have a front four or five when in control.
If they yield possession to the opposition’s defence, they automatically have players in situ across the frontline to apply counter pressure and keep them penned in.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that Brighton rank top in the Premier League this season for high turnovers (possession won within 40 metres of the opposition’s goal) with 41, and Kostoulas tops the player charts for possession won in the final third (7). Related to that, they average easily the fewest opposition passes before registering a defensive action (PPDA) at 6.6.
There are some important caveats, though.
They played 50 minutes against Aston Villa with a one-man advantage (they were 4-0 up already, however), and away to Coventry last weekend they had an extra man for 37 minutes. At 87 minutes in total, that’s practically a quarter of Brighton’s game time this season, and unsurprisingly more than any other team.
It’s also worth remembering that the Villa side they battered had the spine of their team ripped out in the summer and so are hardly the force they were, while promoted Coventry are yet to score a goal or earn a point.
Against Arsenal on Saturday, then, perhaps we’ll see how far they’ve truly come.
Arsenal have become renowned as one of the toughest out-of-possession teams in the world, and they have the capacity to mix things up when on the ball. They won’t stubbornly stick to a plan to build from the back if it poses too much of a risk; David Raya won’t be shy about going long, especially if Arsenal sense opportunities to get Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Christos Tzolis in behind Brighton’s defence.
After all, Brighton have spent the joint-third-most time in a high block (38%) among Premier League clubs this season, and on average they begin their passing sequences further from their own goal than anyone else (46.9m).
Again, the red cards they’ve benefited from will have had an impact. But while that may suggest some of their figures are exaggerated, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re completely misleading.
Furthermore, it’s not unfounded to suggest Arsenal have had problems in the past against teams who press high. The most high turnovers recorded against them in single league games last term was eight at Bournemouth and Aston Villa – and they lost both games.
The two don’t automatically go hand in hand, of course, but such discomfort can have a knock-on effect, and Arsenal haven’t really faced that kind of pressure yet this term.
Only Brighton (35.7%) have played a smaller proportion of their forward passes in their own half under high pressure than Arsenal (37.9%). The two teams also rank first and second, respectively, for the share of all passes played under any pressure, with Brighton at 58.9% and Arsenal at 61.4%.
Brighton certainly aren’t infallible and it seems unlikely they’ll be able to keep up this intensity over a full season. Fatigue shouldn’t be an issue yet, but if you can get through/over their press, there could be large spaces to exploit, as Chelsea showed in their victory at Stamford Bridge.
This looks likely to be a different kind of test from those Arsenal have already passed this season. They can expect to be put under pressure and have their concentration stretched, but if Mikel Arteta outwits his opposite number, it will provide further evidence that this Arsenal side can find the necessary answers against almost any type of opponent.
A positive result for Brighton, on the other hand, will really make the rest of the league sit up and take note.
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