Pascal Gross, Charalampos Kostoulas and Chema Andres scored the goals in a dominant win for the Seagulls over the previously unbeaten Gunners.
A victory for Hurzeler’s side was not a monumental shock, but the nature of it was eye-catching as they hammered the lacklustre champions.
The Brighton boss says his team’s commitment to an intense style of play was the basic reason for their success, although it is a game plan they try to employ in every match.
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‘Our approach was that we focused really on us and our approach was we want to win the small battles first,’ Hurzeler said on talkSPORT. ‘Win the first header, win the first tackle, win the first throw-in, win the first corner.
‘It sounds a bit old school but that really was our approach because when you win these small battles, then you grow into the game and then you can create a bigger chance.
‘First of all it’s getting into this game, having this commitment to our style of play and our principles. Then winning the small battles, when you win the small battles the players gain confidence and create this self-belief and really trust in each other. Then we grow into the game and we also had in the right moment, had the right momentum on our side.
Pascal Gross led the way for an inspired Brighton side (Picture: Shutterstock)
‘That’s always our approach. Our philosophy is we want to play intense football. Having good balance between defensive ability and controlling the game in possession.
‘Therefore if you want to control the game you need to have this intensity to win the ball back as quickly as possible. You need players who have commitment to our pressing.
‘I think that was definitely a key, that was our commitment from the first second.’
Mikel Arteta was left fuming with his Arsenal players (Picture: REUTERS)
Hurzeler would not accept that Brighton produced a perfect performance to down Arsenal, but more than improving on it, he wants to reproduce it as regularly as possible.
‘Was it a perfect game? I won’t say it’s a perfect game, there are things to improve,’ he said. ‘Overall our challenge now is that we make these exceptional performances normal, this is the challenge we have now.
‘We have this phrase: We want to challenge the establishment. Challenging the establishment doesn’t mean to challenge them in one game, you have to challenge them when you’re not playing against them. We have to be consistent in performances.
‘These kind of performances, they have to get normal for us and that’s the biggest challenge we can set ourselves.’
Arsenal’s perfect start to the season ended abruptly (Picture:Getty Images)
A fuming Arteta said he could tell it was going to be a bad day out for his team very early on at the Amex.
‘They deserved to win the game and it’s a big lesson for us,’ said the Gunners boss. ‘From the first throw-in you could sense it, it was so clear.
‘We put ourselves in trouble one time, two times, three times and we need to get out of that much quicker than that. That’s one of the biggest lessons that we have to take from the game.
‘We knew how tough it was going to be and the first thing we had discussed was about the first part. If you don’t get out of that first part as winners, it will be extremely difficult to dominate the game and to have any probability of winning the game. At this level, it’s extremely important to respect and to understand [that] before anything else.’
