FA PREMIER LEAGUE 

ARSENAL 2 (Odegaard 14, Rutter OG 52)

BRIGHTON 1 (Gomez 64) 

ARSENAL are still sitting pretty at the top of the league but they are certainly not looking like Champions-elect.

This was another laboured victory, ultimately sealed thanks to another bizarre own goal – the fourth in the last three games at the Emirates – and a wonder save from David Raya.

Arsenal amassed 24 shots, but just six on target, with chance after chance flying left and right and above the goal.

Riccardo Calafiori was injured in the warm-up leading to a last minute restructure of the Arsenal back line that already had Declan Rice playing right side due to Jurien Timber’s injury.

Despite playing out of position, Rice was once again head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch – although Martin Odegaard was for much of the game sublime.

After the match manager Mikel Arteta said: “You speak to Declan and tell him he needs to play there as a right winger and he said, OK, I’m up for the challenge, I’m going to do my best, and the attitude is great to witness.”

The Arsenal captain opened the scoring with a well struck finish to the near post from just right of the D.

The Gunners pounced after Brighton played some sloppy passes out from the back.

The home side were in the first half fully in control and looking set for a comfortable win, with Brighton having not got near the goal let alone had a shot.

Striker Viktor Gyokeres had a great chance in the first minute, but his shot was woefully tame.

Arsenal fans have almost got used to these insipid performances from the much-hyped summer signing.

In the absence of goals, he could do more to try and win the hearts of the supporters.

But he sort of breezes around and often stumbles on the ball.  But he did eek out space to shoot in the second half but blasted straight at the keeper from a tight angle.

He rarely seems to be in the right place when the ball comes into the box and it’s hard to tell if that’s due to the passes or his understanding of the play.

Gyokeres was replaced by Jesus but the Arsenal number 9 did not look much like scoring either.

Bukayo Saka also looks a little jaded.

He did well to create a number of chances running past his man to the byline, or chopping back to shoot.

He had skied a shot way over moments before cutting back to Odegaard for his opener.

But it seems like teams come knowing his game and are often equal to the strategy.

The only real sense of optimism from the supporters comes from corners and that chaos that follows the rebounds as the ball is whipped in.

It was no surprise that the own goal came from a Rice corner, swung in to the danger area.

Rutter leapt ahead of the Arsenal players, and glanced a perfect header into the far corner.

Rice was a little slow to react to the Diego Gomez goal, turned in after a well directed shot beat Raya but bounced back off the post.

Raya went on to make an incredible save from Minteh that looked in all way – and the last 15 was nervy.

Asked about the nervy atmosphere, Arteta said: “That’s a willingness to win! We all want to win so badly.

“Now I don’t want to lose what I have and we have to play to continue to score and show that composure and that ability and we should have scored the third one.”

Indeed, Martinelli should have sealed it at the end but turned the ball over from a perfect Saka cross.

Much has been written about the fixture congestion but it was surprising that neither Noni Madueke or Ebirechi Eze got to come off the bench.

There was a huge roar for the return of Gabriel however, reunited with William Saliba in central defence.

Arteta said: “We can only control what we do, and we are doing a lot of good things that I think we have to improve as well to have the margins better.”

Next up a big tie against Aston Villa.

Arsenal: Raya, Lewis-Skelly,  (Gabriel 71),  Hincapié, Saliba, Rice, Merino, Zubimendi, Ødegaard, Trossard (Martinelli 82), Gyökeres (Jesus 71) Saka
Subs not used: Kepa, Eze, Madueke, Nwaneri, Salmon, Nørgaard

Brighton & Hove Albion: Verbruggen, Dunk, van Hecke, Coppola (Watson 87), De Cuyper (Wieffer 46), Hinshelwood (Welbeck 75), Ayari, Kadioglu, Gómez (Kostoulas 87), Gruda (Minteh 46), Rutter
Subs not used: Boscagli, Milner, Steele, Veltman

Attendance 60,