Fabian Hurzeler has reacted to Brighton’s win over Arsenal, saying his side were “horrible” to play against.

Brighton had lost all three games against the Gunners last season, but were well worth all three points at the Amex Stadium on Saturday as they outclassed and outfought the Premier League champions.

Pascal Gross and Charalampos Kostoulas fired in from distance to give the Seagulls a 2-0 lead at half time, before Chema Andres headed in a third shortly before the hour mark after being left unmarked at the back post.

The 3-0 scoreline did not flatter Brighton, and in truth, they could have won by a bigger margin as Matt O’Reilly was twice denied by David Raya late in the second half.

Reflecting on a first win over Arsenal and Mikel Arteta at the sixth attempt, Hurzeler said: "Beating the current champions and the best team in England is something special.

"But it's not because the result is special, it's the performance. The boys showed real togetherness and intensity.

"They were horrible to play against today and that's because we did the basic things right. Overall I was very pleased with the performance.

"I think we deserved to win. It's a moment the players and the staff can enjoy because they worked hard for this but it's also important why we had this success today, because we did the basics right and we were brilliant in the duels.

“I think it's not too much about the weaknesses from Arsenal. It's really about sticking to our principles and sticking to our beliefs and what we want to do in our game, especially at home and in front of our supporters.

“And that was our approach, focusing on us not speaking too much about strengths or weaknesses from Arsenal. Everyone knows when you see their team, there will come a lot of individual quality. There is a lot of individual class, a top team and the current champions.

“It’s about what can we do? What can we control to have the right approach and to be successful in this particular game? In terms of minute one to minute 90, attack versus defence.”