Dressing Room in Turmoil: Arsenal Players Erupt in Complaints Following Devastating First Defeat

Bruno Guimarães painted a bleak picture of Arsenal's dressing room following Saturday's humiliating 3–0 loss to Brighton & Hove Albion, disclosing that "everyone was complaining" about an "unacceptable" display on the south coast.

The Gunners were second best from the 18th second of the match, according to Mikel Arteta's scathing assessment of the club's first defeat this season. Arsenal had already lost the opening header, with Diego Gómez beating Christos Tzolis in the air, by the time Riccardo Calafiori threw the ball in to Guimarães. The unusually sluggish Brazilian was surrounded by two home players, rolled an underhit pass to his compatriot Gabriel, whose clearance was swallowed up by a cluster of blue shirts.

"In the first throw, you could sense it, it was so clear," Arteta lamented, speaking in hushed tones through his post-match press conference with a barely concealed sense of anger. The atmosphere was no more uplifting in the dressing room just around the corner.

"I think today is a day to forget," Guimarães admitted to waiting reporters after his first Premier League start for the club. "Everything we tried didn't work. Credit to them [Brighton] as well but we can't accept this here.

"I think in the changing room, everyone was complaining about ourselves, about the level we played today. Like I said, it's not acceptable. A very bad day in the office."

Arteta Tears Into 'Disrespectful' Players

Arteta viewed his side's first defeat of the season as an act of disrespect. Arsenal's players were well aware of the challenge ahead of them—if they had needed any reminder of Brighton's formidable high press, they only had to look back at Wednesday's comeback against Manchester United—yet still played right into the hosts' hands.

"Brighton were another gear up from us," Arteta fumed. "We were extremely poor technically and not respecting the game. And from our side there were certain basics that you need to accomplish in football, especially in the Premier League, that we were very far from."

"In the first duel, the second ball, that put the game, especially how direct they were, in a really difficult place for us," the Arsenal manager added. "On top of that, when we did regain the ball, especially in our own half, the amount of technical errors that we made and we didn't respect any principle of play that you have to get out of those man-to-man situations."

Guilty Guimaraes Sends Promise to Fans

Among all the underwhelming performances from those in red over the weekend, Guimarães was arguably responsible for the most glaring display. This was precisely the kind of test Arteta had envisioned when he approved the $100.4 million (£75 million) signing of the Brazilian during the summer. Yet Arsenal's costly midfield lynchpin misfired along with the rest of the squad in the face of Brighton's relentless press.

Perhaps acknowledging his own contribution to this troubling collapse, the former Newcastle United captain issued an apology to the Arsenal faithful, vowing that better days lie ahead.

"Definitely not the way we wanted to finish before the international break," Guimarães wrote on social media. "We know this isn't the level we should be at when wearing this shirt. We'll work even harder when we're back to make sure this doesn't happen again.

"Thank you for your support, Gunners."