Arsenal 2-1 Brighton 
by Layth Yousif 
at Ashburton Grove

Martin Odegaard and a Georginio Rutter own goal sealed victory for Arsenal as Mikel Arteta’s Gunners headed back to the top of the Premier League.

Despite Diego Gomez’s strike for Albion to set up a fraught finish, the Gunners leapfrogged Manchester City to take No 1 spot ahead of the crucial clash against Aston Villa tomorrow.

Yet, it was hard to discern much post-Christmas festive cheer in the red and white part of north London around 30 minutes before kick-off, when the news broke that Riccardo Calafiori was injured in the warm-up.

The mood felt dark. Full-back Jurrien Timber was already missing from the squad to face the Seagulls. Meaning the Gunners were without a recognised right-back due to Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera, the other options in that position, also being out injured.

Calafiori’s unfortunate late problem resulted in Arteta shuffling his already threadbare team, meaning Declan Rice started at right-back for the Gunners.

The gloom was amplified further with City grabbing a late winner at the City Ground to beat Nottingham Forest 2-1, which saw Pep Guardiola’s side edge past Arsenal to become the division leaders.

However, this Arsenal side are nothing if not resilient, and started on the front foot against Fabian Hurtlezer’s inconsistent side from the south coast.

The early dominance paid off, with skipper Odegaard firing Arteta’s side 1-0 ahead after only 14 minutes, to post his first goal of the stop start season for the talented 27-year-old.

The goal came after the creative Norwegian drilled his low effort past the despairing dive of Bart Verbruggen, as the home support blew off their post-Christmas malaise by cheering loudly.

Further cheers rang out shortly afterwards when, on a bitterly cold north London afternoon, influential centre-back Gabriel warmed-up along the touchline, as the crowd welcomed their “King of Brazil” back.

There was also an eruption of loud acclaim, when Rice — who else? — powered into a thunderously perfectly timed tackled to rob the unfortunate Brajan Gruda of the ball near the touchline on the halfway line. The action underlining just what a world-class footballer the England midfielder really is, whether it be as a No 6, a No 8, or even as a majestically solid makeshift right-back.

In fact, the only discernible jeers came when former Seagull Leo Trossard came into contact with the ball, the travelling fans, presumably still annoyed at the Belgian international swapping the south coast for north London.

Which made it twice in a week for the 29-year-old, after Albion’s former attacker had been booed at Ashburton Grove following Brighton’s rivals Crystal Palace hurling abuse at him during their League Cup defeat.

Not that it would have bothered the hardy Trossard a jot. All that mattered was the score.

A scoreline that the home side doubled just after the break, when Rutter’s header from Rice’s corner saw the ball fly past Verbruggen and into the net to make it 2-0 on 52 minutes.

Buoyed, the home side hunted for more, with yeoman Viktor Gyokeres smashing a near post effort straight at Verbruggen, while Saka fired over following a sweeping move.

That was before Gomez fired past David Raya to make it 2-1, after following up the ball which hit the post from Yasin Ayari’s effort, before it rebounded back for the Seagulls’ No 25 to halve the deficit on 64 minutes.

In a bid to shore up the back line, and also to protect the callow Lewis-Skelly who still has plenty to learn regarding incurring the wrath of referees through dissent, Gabriel replaced the teenager who had just been booked by John Brooks, as Arsenal’s influential “King of Brazil” returned to first team action amid much acclaim.

Arteta reflected on his squad’s injuries afterwards, saying: “We’ve survived six months [with injuries]. So, let’s see, there’s another five-and-a-half to go. Hopefully things will get better.

“The good news as well [is] we got Gabi earlier than expected, which is great. The medical staff, I think they’ve done an incredible job the way he pushes himself as well, that’s what we need because we lost one and we got somebody else back.

“Overall, I think the performance was, against a really good side, very, very good.”

There was also a welcome for Danny Welbeck when he came on for Brighton to applause from the home support, in recognition of his efforts for Arsenal during his time in north London.

With 14 minutes remaining Raya produced the save of the season when he flung himself full length to tip away Yankuba Minteh’s curling effort to keep the score 2-1.

There was still time for Martinelli to fire over from close range following a sweeping move upfield, that culminated in Saka’s teasing ball into the middle for the Brazil attacker, but as the clock ticked down, Arsenal held on for another vital victory despite not firing on all cylinders once again.

Speaking after the match, Arteta said he was: “Very happy with the performance, individually and collectively, so dominant.

“We were a big threat, so very pleased with all of that. But the margins should have been much bigger.”

Next up are Villa, where nothing but victory will silence the doubters and haters.