Arsenal’s pace issues were laid bare during their match against Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday, with Gabriel Martinelli absent from the squad entirely.

Without Martinelli available, the Gunners had no obvious outlet to exploit space in behind Brighton’s relentless and well-organised press throughout the afternoon.

A closer look at the running statistics from the match revealed some genuinely eye-catching numbers among the speed rankings recorded at the Amex.

Arsenal had just one player in the top five fastest on the pitch, with Christos Tzolis clocking a top speed of 31.4 kilometres per hour.

Brighton’s Malick Yalcouye was the quickest player on the field overall, reaching 32 kilometres per hour across the ninety minutes.

Arsenal managed to place four players inside the top ten, with Tzolis joined by Martin Odegaard at 31.1km/h and Bukayo Saka at 30.9km/h.

The fourth Arsenal player in that top ten was the most unexpected name on the entire list by some distance.

Goalkeeper David Raya reached a top speed of 30.4 kilometres per hour, which represented his highest recorded speed of the entire season so far.

Raya’s inclusion among Arsenal’s quickest players on the day raised a natural follow-up question about who the club’s fastest player has actually been this season.

The answer was not on the pitch at the Amex at all, as Cristhian Mosquera is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury that has kept him out of recent fixtures.

Mosquera tops Arsenal’s speed rankings this season with an impressive recorded top speed of 34.8 kilometres per hour, placing him well clear of his teammates.

What makes that figure even more striking is that ten players below Mosquera on Arsenal’s own speed list have also exceeded the top speed the club produced against Brighton.

That context underlines just how much Arsenal’s available options were limited on the day, with several of their more explosive athletes either injured or absent from the squad.

The statistics paint a broader picture of an Arsenal side that, on this particular afternoon, simply could not match the kind of raw speed their opponents were able to generate.

With Martinelli and Mosquera both unavailable, the depth of Arsenal’s pace in wide and defensive areas was significantly reduced, and Brighton’s press exploited that limitation effectively throughout the game.

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