Arsenal 2-1 Brighton: David Raya save keeps Gunners top of table
Arsenal’s victory over Brighton was like a game that has been played many times this season.
The Gunners dominated the game, missed opportunities and had to deal with injuries to key players; It’s something that has tested their squad since the opening game of the campaign, and they have been without striker Kai Havertz since then with a knee injury.
On Saturday, Arsenal were without the injured Jurrien Timber and lost Riccardo Calafiori in the warm-up, meaning left-back Myles Lewis-Skelly was quickly thrust into the starting line-up.
There was some good news as centre-back Gabriel returned as a second-half substitute following his injury.
Arteta said his team had “survived” six months of difficulties and that injuries to key players had “united” the squad.
“We have survived six months now, let’s see, we have five and a half more months ahead of us, hopefully everything will be better,” he said.
“The good news is we have Gabi [Gabriel] “Sooner than expected, which is great.”
This is the second week in a row that Manchester City have played ahead of Arsenal and gone top of the Premier League, with Arsenal having to respond.
But Arteta says his side are relishing the challenges they face as they try to win the Premier League for the first time since 2004.
“We can only control what we do. We are doing a lot of good things and I think we need to improve,” he said, adding that “playing every three days will be a challenge and we are ready for it.”
