Brighton & Hove Albion 0-3 Arsenal
by Layth Yousif
at Falmer Stadium 

ARSENAL went back to the top of the Premier League table with a vital victory over Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton on Saturday evening.

The first came from Bukayo Saka’s penalty, prior to Kai Havertz grabbing his ninth league goal of the campaign after the break, before Leandro Trossard’s late third sealed three important points for the north Londoners.

Mikel Arteta, who rotated his side in the 2-0 win over Luton, made four changes for the clash against the Seagulls.

Saka was deemed fit to start following his absence with a minor injury on Wednesday. While Declan Rice, Jorginho and Gabriel Jesus returned to the starting XI from the side which earned a point at Manchester City over Easter.

Thomas Partey, Emile Smith Rowe and Leandro Trossard all dropped to the bench — while Reiss Nelson missed out completely despite being praised by Arteta for his contribution during the victory over the Hatters.

Ansu Fati and Valentin Barco returned to the Brighton squad after missing Wednesday’s goalless draw against Brentford, but Adam Webster and Evan Ferguson were not available.

With Manchester City easing past Crystal Palace 4-2 in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off, the Gunners slipped back to third place without playing, making it imperative they picked up a win on the south coast.

Quite simply three points for Arsenal and they moved back to the top of the pile. Three for Brighton and they would move to within two points of sixth place.

Arsenal certainly started brightly, and could have scored with their first attack of the match, but Gabriel headed Martin Odegaard’s free-kick wide of Bart Verbruggen’s right-hand post.

On nine minutes, a sweeping Albion move started by Tariq Lamptey ended up cutting the Gunners’ rearguard wide open, only for Enciso to fire over David Raya’s bar, under pressure from former Seagull Ben White and William Saliba.

Shortly afterwards, in a lively opening, Jakub Moder’s effort flew wide for the home side, before the Gunners countered with the fit again Saka drilling his shot just wide of Verbruggen’s right hand. The 21-year-old Dutch international then pushed away Jesus’s shot, prior to Jesus heading Jorginho’s perceptive ball into the box via Havertz across goal and past the far post.

The breakthrough for Arteta’s side came in the 33rd minute, when referee John Brooks awarded a spot kick to Arsenal after Lamptey made contact with Jesus.

Up stepped Saka to coolly slot home past Verbruggen to make it 1-0.

In a fiercely competitive opening 45 minutes, Arsenal keeper David Raya made an excellent save to keep out Julio Enciso’s long-range effort.

With the second half starting very much in the same vein as the first ended, Jesus headed over when well-placed as both sides went for the jugular from the restart.

Pervis Estupinan fired wide and over with two efforts sandwiched in between Martin Odegard having his effort tipped over by Verbruggen at the other end.

The Gunners went 2-0 up after 62 minutes through Havertz.

Brighton lost possession deep in their own half to see Odegaard shimmy away from Gross to play in Jorginho. The midfielder moved to the byline before cutting the ball back into the six-yard box, where Havertz was positioned in exactly the right place to slot home.

A huge goal in a tight game that moved the Gunners back to the top of the table underlined by Trossard’s 86th-minute strike to make it 3-0.