Brighton vs Arsenal LIVE: Premier League result, final score and reaction as Gunners extend lead at the top

This will be Brighton’s first fixture on New Year’s Eve since a 2-0 defeat at Coventry in 2011. Their last win on 31st December came against Birmingham City in 1988.

Can they sneak past the Gunners tonight?

Arsenal are guaranteed to be top of the table at the turn of the year. The Premier League leaders on 1st January have gone on to win the title in nine of the last 13 seasons.

As is it stands Manchester City are being held to a 1-1 drew at home against Everton. That would be a massive result for the Gunners if Everton can hold on to a point.

The seventh-placed Seagulls are on course to end a calendar year in the highest position in their top-flight history, bettering their ninth-place ranking at the same stage of the 1981/82 season.

On top of that Brighton have lost their final league game in just one of the last six calendar years (won three, drew two), though that defeat did come at home to Arsenal in their final match of 2020.

Eddie Nketiah was utterly unfazed by the pressure of replacing injured striker Gabriel Jesus in Arsenal’s 3-1 Boxing Day comeback win over West Ham, said boss Mikel Arteta.

Nketiah netted the third goal in the Gunners’ return to Premier League action, which also marked the 23-year-old’s first start of the season after his Brazilian team-mate sustained a knee injury during the World Cup.

While some felt that Nketiah might succumb to the stress of stepping into the boots of the prolific Jesus, who has scored five goals in 14 top-flight appearances this season, Arteta was adamant his forward approached the opportunity more like a walk in the park.

The Spaniard also hopes Nketiah’s goal will be a further shot in the arm for the striker’s self-belief.

Roberto De Zerbi makes two changes to the Brighton team that defeated Southampton last time out. Tariq Lamptey replaces Joel Veltman at right-back with Billy Gilmour coming in for Moises Caicedo.

For Arsenal there is only one change from Mikel Arteta. Oleksandr Zinchenko comes in for Kieran Tierney.

Brighton XI: Sanchez, Lamptey, Dunk, Colwill, Estupinan, March, Gross, Gilmour, Mitoma, Lallana, Trossard

Arsenal XI: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Partey, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Nketiah

The stage is set for Arsenal’s trip to Brighton tonight, the official team news is coming out shortly.

Can a team be simultaneously sitting in the top half and doing the cliched nervous look back over their shoulder at the bottom three? How about being adrift alone at the bottom on the worst run in the division, but at the same time being only two wins off mid-table?

The Premier League, congested and contorted and crammed in as it is this season, offers plenty of both to the entire bottom half - and perhaps beyond.

Brentford, for example, sit tenth. They have their manager signed to a new deal, beat Man City before the World Cup, produced a credible – first half, at least – display to hold Tottenham to a 2-2 draw on Boxing Day and are in the top half of the table. All should look, and feel, well. But they also have just that one win at City in their last seven and, if they do not beat West Ham before the turn of the year, will have only two league victories to their name in four months when they host Liverpool in their 2023 opener.

Brighton have lost just one of their five Premier League home games against Arsenal with two wins and two draws. That defeat was a 1-0 loss in December 2020.

The Seagulls are one of three teams against whom the Gunners have lost more matches (four) than they have won (three), along with Manchester United (W17, L26) and Liverpool (W17, L25).

Mikel Arteta is optimistic Arsenal will be able to secure a contract extension to ensure that defender William Saliba remains a Gunner long term.

The 21-year-old signed a long-term deal in 2019 and was sent out on loan spells to French sides St Etienne, Nice and Marseille before featuring more regularly at the Emirates this season, scoring two goals across 15 appearances so far this campaign.

His performances have been enough to impress his boss, who hopes to tie down the centre-back before his current deal runs out, with reports suggesting it expires next summer but with an option to extend through to 2024.