Arsenal overcome injury problems to beat Brighton and move back top | OneFootball

Another narrow, nervy win with the help of an own goal kept Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table as they responded to title rivals Manchester City winning earlier in the day

Arsenal had won just three of their eight Premier League home games against Brighton, so seasoned watchers here in north London were not expecting a smooth ride. Those fears were heightened when right-back Jurrien Timber was left out of the squad due to injury and left-back Riccardo Calafiori sustained a knock in the pre-match warm-up to be replaced by Myles Lewis-Skelly.

Declan Rice, arguably the best midfielder in the country this season, started as an emergency replacement for Timber.

It took a classy 14th minute finish from captain Martin Odegaard to take the pressure off when he drilled in a low left-foot shot after good work from Bukayo Saka on the right wing.

Odegaard was back to something like his best form after scoring his first goal of the season . He combined well with Saka, both ably supported by Rice who took to his new role like a natural.

Consistently off the pace referee John Brooks made a big call to keep the game competitive just before half-time when he spared Brighton keeper Bart Verbruggen a red card after he dashed out of his area to hack down Gyokeres with a cynical challenge.

Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler made a couple of changes at half-time to try and get his side back in the game and they looked more threatening, briefly.

Rice then curled in one of his fizzing near-post corners, in the 52nd minute, and Georginio Rutter glanced a header into his own net so precisely it was almost as if he meant it. The French forward is not the first  Arsenal opponent to wilt under pressure as his own goal marked the fourth in Arsenal’s favour in their last three fixtures here.

The calm threatened to switch to panic in the 64th minute when Diego Gomez fired in a rebound after Yasin Ayari’s shot came back off a post.

Once again Arsenal looked vulnerable as they sat too deep and it took goalkeeper David Raya’s latest entry for save of the season to deny Yankuba Minteh an equaliser, but they kept on rolling with another big three points.