Arsenal look to have been left “scared” by the recent 3-0 defeat away to Brighton, prompting them to revert back to their tactics of last season.

The Gunners won the Premier League title last season with a brand of football that some people thought was a bit negative and overly cautious.

At the start of this season, it looked like maybe Arsenal were loosening up a bit and playing a slightly more expansive style, but Merson thinks they’re now being more machine-like again as a response to that result at Brighton.

See below for Merson’s analysis, as he says he’s noticed a slight change to their tactics since the Brighton game…

"They've gone back to being a bit of a machine"

Paul Merson on whether Arsenal have been convincing so far this season ? pic.twitter.com/KL1qtzCzkm

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 17, 2026

“I don’t know if it was the Brighton result that scared them a little bit, because I thought before that they were a little bit more open,” Merson said on Sky Sports.

“And the last couple of games, the Leeds game and the Lille game, for me they’ve gone back to being a bit of a machine. That’s what’s won us the league.”

He added: “I thought this year the shackles might come off … we’re gonna play, we’ve got the players…”

Has Mikel Arteta got Arsenal’s tactics right?

Arsenal fans got used to a certain brand of stylish attacking football under the long-serving and legendary Arsene Wenger, but after a while it stopped being effective.

At times, Wenger’s Arsenal played some of the most attractive football the Premier League has seen, and it led to three titles in 1997/98, 2001/02, and 2003/04.

However, the second half of the Wenger era was a lot less successful, with Arteta having to make the team stronger defensively and more of a threat from set pieces in the title-winning campaign of 2025/26, which ended the club’s 22-year wait to be champions again.

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Still, Arsenal also lost the Champions League final on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain, and there’ll be the sense that they could surely have won that game if they’d kept the ball better and created more chances.

If Arsenal are to retain their title and become more of a force by also conquering Europe, they will surely need to be a bit braver and freer in their approach.