Arsenal go top of Premier League, but again look unconvincing

LONDON — One own goal, two injuries but three points. Arsenal returned to the top of the Premier League with a 2-1 win over Brighton on Saturday, which once again highlighted the fine margins the Gunners are currently operating within.

Mikel Arteta’s side deserved this victory, and now they sit two points clear of Manchester City.

This is despite Arsenal continuing to battle a varied list of fitness problems, the latest of which was Jurriën Timber’s enforced absence before kick-off and the last-minute loss of Riccardo Calafiori to injury in the warm-up. The end result was Declan Rice operating as a makeshift right-back with Myles Lewis-Skelly drafted in on the opposite flank.

Man City’s late win at Nottingham Forest earlier in the day raised the stakes, too, but when Georginio Rutter headed Rice’s 52nd-minute corner into his own net to put the home side 2-0 up, this should have been a comfortable afternoon.

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Martin Odegaard had earlier opened the scoring with a crisp 20-yard drive that you would call his trademark had it not been his first goal since May 25. They ended the first half with 15 shots to Brighton’s zero. And yet, even at 2-0 up, out of calm came chaos. Yasin Ayari hit the post, Diego Gómez converted the rebound and suddenly Brighton had belief. For a few minutes at least, Arsenal, essentially, froze.

Everybody except goalkeeper David Raya, that is. Yankuba Minteh lined up a curling shot hit with ferocious pace yet Raya arched his body and got the fingertips of his right hand to tip the ball over the crossbar.

The tension increased. Gabriel Magalhães came on for his first appearance since Nov. 8 but Arsenal only stabilised a little. Substitute Gabriel Martinelli wasted a glorious chance to win the game when blazing over Bukayo Saka’s cross from seven yards, prompting Arteta to spin on his haunches and almost fell to his knees.

They scrambled the ball to the corner. Five minutes of injury time ticked by in slow motion. But Arsenal hung on. The stadium announcer bellowed out that their team were top again.

And yet, it shouldn’t be this stressful, should it? Arsenal are expending an awful lot of emotional energy and we’re not even into January.

This was another game settled by a one-goal margin — Wolves, Everton and today either side of a penalty shoot-out win against Crystal Palace after conceding in stoppage-time — and therefore the third at home in succession in which they have faced a needless nervous finale.

They have now also benefitted from four own goals in their last four matches across all competitions. The results suggest consistency and reliability in a manner that the performances do not. Which is not to say Arsenal are playing badly but more that they lack the authority of a team who has been there and done it before.

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The scars of three consecutive second-place finishes seem to be on show each week at the moment, the exorcism of past hauntings yet to take place.

Can Arteta feel the nervousness in the crowd?

“When you just conceded in the last minute, the game before against [Crystal] Palace as well, when we didn’t really concede nothing, and then they score with the first shot that they had obviously it is this,” he said.

“But then we have to be able to go through that as well with normality, showing composure and understanding that, ‘OK, if you don’t do that well, you are not efficient in your opponent, then you have to be incredibly good in your own.’ That’s a good way as well to go through that.

“It’s the willingness to win. We all want to win so badly, that it’s like, ‘no, I don’t want to lose what I have.’ We have to play to continue to score and show that composure and that ability. We should have scored the third one.”

Is it sustainable to be this emotionally fraught on a weekly basis?

“Yes, from my side, yes,” said Arteta. “If you win, I think you win, you learn and you go again. The knock-on effect of winning is incredibly powerful.”

Arsenal possess the best squad in the league and should they recover their lost players and begin clicking in the final third in a manner they often threaten, then City face a difficult task in winning the title.

But carry on like this, and Arsenal are in for five tortuous months in pursuit of their first title since 2004. There is at least a sense of togetherness fostered through their mounting injury problems.

Arteta said: “There is an injury with Jurrien, he landed awkwardly and there’s something with Richy, it was something as well, very, very strange but you speak to Declan and tell him he needs to play there as a right back, and he said, ‘Okay, I’m up for a challenge, I’m going to do my best.’ And the attitude is great to witness.

“At the moment we survived six months, so let’s see, there’s another five and a half to go, so hopefully things will get better.”

A few more comfortable matches wouldn’t go amiss. But next up at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday is the team that offers a reminder of how Arsenal have been playing with this fine margins for longer than they would have liked: Aston Villa.

Emiliano Buendía scored a 95th-minute winner to earn Villa a 2-1 at the beginning of the month. It was a game that was in the balance until the end. And so it continues.