Brighton 2 Arsenal 3

The FA Cup produced another boisterous, thrilling, ultimately quite frantic fourth round tie at the Amex Stadium where Arsenal managed to look both supremely well-tuned in attack and familiarly fragile at the back in a thrilling 3-2 defeat of Brighton and Hove Albion.

Twice Brighton surged back from two goals down to push the FA Cup holders all the way in a match that looked at the end of the first half like confirmation of Mesut Özil and Theo Walcott’s return to starting health; but which by the end had provided further evidence of the ability of Football League clubs to compete in this competition with the elite.

With four minutes left Brighton might even have had a penalty to level the scores as the ball was struck against Calum Chambers's hand inside the area, but Michael Oliver was merciful to the Premier League team.

The Amex is a wonderful, groovily cantilevered model of a new-build stadium, all swooping lightweight curves beneath a noise-funnel corrugated roof. Brighton’s season has been resuscitated by a surge of four wins in five since St Stephen’s Day for a team that has suddenly discovered the art of the clean sheet and before kick-off it always seemed likely Brighton would opt for constriction rather than cavalier attack.

So much for planning, then. With 90 seconds gone any thoughts of making Arsenal sweat by holding their ground were gone as a moment of defensive slackness was mercilessly punished. Chambers has only rarely shown his marauding side as a right back this season, but he did his best Garrincha impression here, storming past Joe Bennett with a step over and a burst of speed and crossing low for Walcott, who had pulled away from the two centre backs into an overly generous pocket of space. One neat touch and an instant low half-volleyed shot and the pink ball was in the corner of David Stockdale's net.

It was in more ways than one the perfect start. The big news in Arsenal’s starting XI was a widely-predicted first start for Walcott in over a year, a first start since October for Özil, and a first start for both in each other’s company since December 2013.

And here in the minutes after Walcott's goal Arsenal did look supremely fluent, with Özil, playing just behind Olivier Giroud, finding plenty of space between the lines. One perfectly grooved little nudged inside to Ramsey almost led to a second goal, but his low shot was deflected wide.

Still Arsenal continued to pass and move with fluency, and even to press from the front where there is a case that one of the intangible benefits of Danny Welbeck’s signing has been the quiet revolution in Giroud’s work rate when the opposition have the ball.

The second goal was coming. And on 24 minutes it duly arrived. Again it was a little too easy. Tomas Rosicky meandered in off the left flank, waited for a gap to appear and duly reversed his pass into Özil's run. The touch was instant, the low shot cleverly angled across Stockdale to make it 2-0.

On the touchline Wenger, wrapped in his shin-length quilted gown, allowed himself a double-fisted punch of the air. Arsenal’s fans had already begun to sing about Wembley, but for Wenger the prospect of a fit and happy Özil-Walcott axis providing a high-grade razor edge in the second half of the season is a more immediate source of intrigue.

Not that Brighton were finished. With half an hour gone they had a first clear sight of goal, Sam Baldock shooting over unmarked inside the area. And With Rohan Ince and Danny Hollas getting a grip of central midfield, Brighton did exert some pressure.

The sense of a slight but familiar vulnerability behind that attacking fluency was confirmed five minutes into the second half as Brighton pulled a goal back via a horrible piece of defending and an excellent finish by Chris O'Grady. First, and under little pressure, Kieran Gibbs hoofed a high clearance into the evening sky that landed near the edge of the Arsenal area. Aaron Ramsey was bullied by Baldock into chesting the ball into his own area (he wanted a foul: there wasn't one there) where O'Grady shot low and hard into the corner of the net.

The crowd were roused, but so too were Arsenal and eight minutes later Rosicky made and then scored the goal of the game, winning the ball back and slaloming into space before laying the ball sideways to Giroud, whose dinked pass back to Rosicky was volleyed into the corner with thrilling severity.

Once again, though, Brighton hit back, Baldock setting up a grandstand last 15 minutes with a deserved, and cooly taken goal to make it 3-2. With Nacho Monreal and Laurent Koscielny parting like a set of creaky double doors, Baldock took a perfectly weighted pass between them and dinked the ball over Wojciech Szczesny. Arsenal held on, and will enter the fifth round as the only team from the Premier League's top six to make it at the first time of asking.

(Guardian service)