"Where Africa Comes to Stay Informed."
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"Where Africa Comes to Stay Informed."
Arsenal's flawless opening to the campaign ended in ruins on the south coast on Saturday, where Brighton and Hove Albion took the champions apart 3-0.
Pascal Gross and Charalampos Kostoulas converted the chances a dominant first half created, and Chema Andres nodded in after the break to complete Arsenal's worst beating in three years.
Kitted out in a commemorative blue shirt for the club's 125th anniversary, Fabian Huerzeler's side played at a tempo the visitors never came close to living with.
Gross opened the scoring in the 31st minute, his low strike going in off the post past David Raya — a fourth goal in five outings. Barely sixty seconds after Bukayo Saka had gone close to levelling, Kostoulas finished a counter-attack in near-identical fashion. Andres then took advantage of loose marking to head home from close range off a Gross corner.
"A really disappointing result and performance. Brighton were another gear up from us. We were extremely poor technically and not respecting the game," Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said.
"They were another gear from us in the basics of the game."
Arsenal had taken seven straight wins from the start of the season, their first four league fixtures included, in an opening that looked forbidding for the rest of the division. That run is now over.
The champions sit on 12 points from five matches, level with Manchester City, who can open a three-point lead by beating Sunderland on Sunday. Brighton climb to third on 10 points and have the division's best attacking return with 16 goals.
Spurs found the net in the Premier League for the first time this season and still came away with nothing, losing 3-2 at home to an Aston Villa side who finally got their first league victory.
Villa goalkeeper Zion Suzuki repeatedly denied the hosts before Unai Emery's team went ahead in first-half stoppage time through summer arrival Johan Manzambi, who tapped in while Tottenham were temporarily a man short with Micky van de Ven off receiving treatment for a facial cut.
Nicolas Jackson made it two in the 67th minute with a composed finish, and Emi Buendia settled matters 11 minutes from the end with a 22-yard drive into the top corner. Much of the crowd had already left by the time Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke pulled goals back for Roberto De Zerbi's side.
"Today I was very disappointed, very sad, very frustrated for the performance. Because we can't lose this game in this way, absolutely," said De Zerbi, whose team have two points and may sit bottom of the table by the international break.
Thierno Barry's strike gave still-unbeaten Everton a 1-0 win over Ipswich Town and lifted them to fifth. Ipswich finished with ten after Abdul Fatawu collected a second booking in the 67th minute.
Newcastle raced two ahead of Hull City inside seven minutes through Joe Willock and Lewis Hall, then had to see it out after Mohamed-Ali Cho pulled one back midway through the second half. The 2-1 defeat was the promoted side's first in the league this season.
In the evening fixture at the City Ground, Jay Dasilva's superb 55th-minute goal earned Coventry City a 1-0 win — their first goal and first points since returning to the top flight after 25 years away, and enough to lift Frank Lampard's team off the foot of the table.
Dasilva ran on to a long clearance and bent his shot beyond Matz Sels. Forest thought they had equalised late through Igor Jesus, but a VAR review ruled he had tripped defender Caleb Yirenkyi in the build-up.
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