Arsenal 2-0 Brighton: 

Goals from Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz were enough to secure a vital victory for the Gunners on Sunday afternoon.

The second half strikes sealed three points against an obdurate Brighton side to put the North Londoners back on top of the Premier League table before Liverpool’s clash with Manchester United.

The goals came despite Roberto De Zerbi rotating his side once again, making three changes from the 1-1 draw with Burnley in Brighton's last league game.

Mahmoud Dahoud, Joao Pedro and Carlos Baleba all dropped to the bench, with Kaoru Mitoma, Billy Gilmour and Joel Veltman starting. Evan Ferguson was selected to lead the line having been substitute in their late 1-0 win over Marseille on Thursday. Former Arsenal man Danny Welbeck was back among the substitutes following his injury. 

In contrast, Mikel Arteta opted for an unchanged side from the 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa in their last league game.

It says much that De Zerbi has lost Alexis Mac Allister, Moises Caicedo and Levi Colwill, while Pervic Estupinan and Julio Enciso are out with long-term injuries - yet the impressive Seagulls came into this game aiming to leapfrog Newcastle into sixth place. While anyone who saw their wise handling of L’OM to seal top spot in Europa League Group B, will know De Zerbi has a worthy squad. Even if the Italian has made more line-up changes per game this season than any other side in Premier League history.

Not so worthy was when Brighton's James Milner’s late, and quite frankly cynical challenge, wiped out Bukayo Saka, who incidentally, was precisely a year old when Milner made his topflight debut for Leeds back in 2002.

Jesus fired wide on 19 minutes, prior to the Gunners other Gabriel testing Seagulls keeper Bart Verbruggen with a downwards header moments later, as Arsenal ramped up their dominance in a bid to open the scoring.

That was prior to Martin Odegaard – on his 25th birthday - playing an exquisite through ball to Saka with the outside of his foot, before Gabi Martinelli fired over the bar from the Arsenal No7's cross. While nothing came of the move, it was a joy to see such flair.

What was not enjoyable to witness was the continued targeting of Saka, not least when Brighton’s talented Kaoru Mitoma was belatedly booked for hauling back the England international.

Such was Arteta’s annoyance at witnessing such frustrating truculence in front of him on the touchline, referee Tim Robinson also ensured the Gunners boss received a yellow card, his fourth of the season. And in the week when the FA had cleared the Basque of anything untoward when speaking his mind after VAR controversy during the 1-0 loss at Newcastle last month.

It became Ben White’s turn to repay the favour on the Japanese attacker, earning a caution for dragging back the dangerous 27-year-old.

Despite the half ending goalless, there was still time for the relentlessly unconvincing David Raya to fluff his lines when mishandling Simon Adringa’s cross, before managing to control the ball on his line moments before the interval.

However, before it was time to bemoan a lack of cutting edge in the Arsenal attack, Jesus headed home to put the home side ahead on 53 minutes to make it 1-0 to the home side.   

Odegaard was denied by Verbruggen when the 21-year-old Netherlands-born keeper palmed away a powerful effort.

On 68 minutes Brighton’s Lewis Dunk did well to keep the ball out of the net when heading White’s flick on from Martinelli’s corner over the bar. No wonder England boss Gareth Southgate paid a trip to the south coast last week to monitor the centre-back’s form.

Havertz could have made the game safe with 15 minutes remaining, but headed Martinelli’s cross over the bar when well-placed.

As the clock ticked down Mitoma teed up Thursday’s hero Joao Pedro, but the 21-year-old Brazilian steered his effort wide of Raya’s near post when he really should have scored his second goal of the week, following his last-gasp Europa League winner against Marseille.

With three minutes remaining Havertz raced through to fire past Verbruggen to double the score and post an important victory, which while not as memorable as Gunners previous goal-laden feasts this term, could be just as vital come May when the title race is decided.