Odegaard leads Arsenal to top spot

The Gunners beat Brighton 2-1 at home

LONDON:

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard's first club goal of the season helped his side beat Brighton and Hove Albion 2-1 at home on Saturday to return to the top of the Premier League table.

For the second week running, Arsenal kicked off having been displaced by Manchester City earlier in the day and they responded once again to the challenge although what appeared on paper a routine win was fraught with late nerves.

Odegaard's season has been disrupted by a knee injury but the Norwegian showed his trademark precision in the 14th minute to drive a left-footed shot low past Brighton keeper Bart Verbruggen to give Arsenal a deserved lead.

Mikel Arteta's side were totally dominant and doubled their lead with a Georginio Rutter own goal in the 52nd minute - the Frenchman getting a touch to a Declan Rice corner.

Brighton had offered next to nothing as an attacking force until Diego Gomez slammed in a rebound in the 64th minute after Yasin Ayari's shot came back off the post.

The visitors came on strong late on and would have equalised had Arsenal keeper David Raya not produced a stunning save to keep out Yankuba Minteh's curling effort.

It was an anxious finish but Arsenal held on to reach 42 points from 18 games with City, who beat Nottingham Forest earlier, on 40. Brighton, winless in five, stay 12th.

Should Arsenal go on to claim the title for the first time since 2004, the narrow wins they have become so adept at grinding out will likely be a huge factor.

Since losing in stoppage time to Aston Villa, they have secured three successive wins - a last-gasp 2-1 victory over bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers, last weekend's 1-0 win at Everton to grab top spot back from City and Saturday's win over Brighton.

In reality, they should have spared themselves any jitters against Brighton as they spent most of Saturday in control.

"Very happy with the performance, individually and collectively so dominant, we were a big threat, so very pleased with all of that, but the margin should have been bigger," Arteta, who was often frantic on the touchline, said.

Odegaard's goal, set up by a pass from Bukayo Saka, was scant reward for Arsenal's first-half display and they would have been comfortable had Verbruggen not made saves from Martin Zubimendi, Rice and Viktor Gyokeres.

One worry for Arteta was the sight of his side dropping deeper and deeper after conceding and they needed Raya's brilliance on his 150th Arsenal appearance to somehow touch Minteh's goal-bound shot over the crossbar.

Another was an injury for Riccardo Calafiori in the warm-up which meant Rice had to play as a makeshift full back.

On the plus side, it was another three points and key defender Gabriel came off the bench in the second half for his first appearance since early November after injury.

"Hopefully things will get better, the good news is we've got Gabi earlier than expected, which is great," Arteta said of a challenging injury list that also includes Jurrien Timber, who was ruled out on Saturday.