Arsenal defeated Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium to climb back to the top of the English Premier League table on Sunday.
Liverpool, who sit third place, are a point behind the new leaders as they wait for a showdown with rivals Manchester United.
Arsenal beat Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 at home on Sunday with second-half goals from Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz, as the north London side provisionally moved back to the top of the Premier League standings.
Arsenal’s victory put them one point ahead of Aston Villa, who now sit in second place with 38 points.
A point farther behind are third-place Liverpool, who play rivals Manchester United later on Sunday.
Though Brighton had triumphed in their previous three visits to The Emirates Stadium across all competitions, the most of the action took place inside their box as Arsenal became the first team this season to avoid a clean sheet against Roberto De Zerbi’s squad.
With goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen standing firm, the Seagulls, who slid to ninth, survived several waves of Arsenal attacks without scoring a single goal in the first half.
“It’s a great team, they play very nice football. It’s tough to play against them. We knew we’re strong at our house here. Today it went quite well,” Havertz said.
Arsenal was also guilty of failing to take advantage of their opportunities after Gabriel Martinelli came the closest to scoring for Arsenal.
The two teams went into halftime with a score of 0-0.
However, defender Jan Paul van Hecke mishandled a corner ball into the path of the unmarked Jesus at the far post, ending Brighton’s fight eight minutes into the second half as the Brazilian striker headed home.
Arsenal kept pounding Brighton’s goal with shots, not willing to settle for a one-goal lead. Havertz’s header went over, and captain Martin Odegaard—who was playing on his 25th birthday—had a shot palmed away.
Although Brighton had been playing passively the entire time, they had a fantastic opportunity to equalise in the 82nd minute when Kaoru Mitoma dribbled the ball into the box and slid past his defender, but Pascal Gross missed the target.
In the 87th minute, the Gunners executed a counterattack to secure the three points as substitute Eddie Nketiah dished a through ball to Havertz, and the German attacker fired a shot into the bottom corner.
Havertz has scored four goals in his last seven games despite starting his Arsenal career poorly as he struggled to score goals.
“I’m happy as an offensive player, it’s always nice to score or assist,” he added. “The first one or two months were difficult but I tried to get the best out of myself every day.”