Arsenal beat Brighton, go 7 points clear atop Premier League

Sports Desk, Dec 31 (EFE).- Arsenal sparkled Saturday in a 4-2 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion that left the Premier League-leading Gunners 7 points ahead of defending champions Manchester City, who were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw with Everton.

With their fifth straight leaque victory, Mikel Arteta’s men improved to 43 points. Brighton, on 24 points, remain 8th in the table, but Chelsea can overtake the Seagulls with a win Sunday against second-from-bottom Nottingham Forest.

The Gunners needed just 66 seconds to silence the Brighton supporters at the AMEX with a goal by Bukayo Saka, one of the standout performers for England at the World Cup.

Brighton were quick to recover their composure and began to create chances at the other end, but conceded again in the 39th minute, when Martin Odegaard punished the Seagulls for their failure to clear a corner.

Eddie Nketiah made it 3-0 for Arsenal just two minutes into the second half and the contest looked to be over until Kaoru Mitoma pulled back a goal for the hosts in the 65th minute.

Gabriel Martinelli restored Arsenal’s three-goal margin just six minutes later, but Brighton battled on and narrowed the deficit to two in the 77th, as Evan Ferguson lifted the ball over Aaron Ramsdale after a lucky bounce in the box.

Mitoma scored again with two minutes left in regulation to set the stage for an epic battle in stoppage time until VAR intervened to disallow the goal for a barely detectable offside.

EFE apa/dr