Albion made eight changes from the side that beat Wolves at the weekend for their third-round trip to the Emirates on Wednesday night but the Gunners fielded nearly a completely different team to the one that beat Chelsea on Sunday.
Mikel Arteta made 10 changes for the clash against the Seagulls, with only defender William Saliba keeping his place, and although they took the lead thanks to Eddie Nketiah's goal, the visitors roared back to advance to round four of the competition.
A Danny Welbeck penalty, and well-taken strikes from Kaoru Mitoma and Tariq Lamptey meant Brighton beat the Premier League leaders for the second time in a row, following their 2-1 win on the same ground back in April.
While Arteta said the cup game, and the fact that they have some injury issues, shows they are "short" in terms of strength in depth in their squad, Albion head coach De Zerbi thought the Gunners had more than enough to win the contest. After all, they had 57% possession and 22 shots on goal to the Seagulls' 13.
When asked if he believed they had a good chance of winning after seeing Arsenal's starting XI, he replied: "No, no, no. All of Arsenal's players are very good players. For us, it is difficult with Gabriel Jesus or other players. I know the first XI of Arsenal is better but the other players who played were able to win [the game], and for this I am happy. We won a game against a great team."
Arsenal have picked up 34 points from a possible 39 in the league this season and are two points ahead of defending champions Manchester City. But there was, arguably, a lack of cutting edge against Brighton as it seemed they were missing players such as Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, and Gabriel Martinelli, the latter two of which came off the bench, from the start.
Arteta said after the match: "That’s the squad that we have and we have to try to utilise the squad in the best possible way. We came up short, especially because we didn’t do what we have to do in both boxes to win football matches and we paid a price.
"We know where we are and we knew the moment we had certain injuries that the squad is already very, very short. We have tried to manage that in the best possible situation. But it’s the same when we win a football match, no excuses."
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