March 05, (THEWILL) — A milestone for Bukayo Saka yielded a match-winning moment, with the forward netting the only goal of the contest to hand Arsenal a 1-0 victory over Brighton and Hove Albion and extend their English Premier League lead to seven points.
Saka, who was marking his 300th appearance for the club, broke the deadlock with a strike that deflected off Carlos Baleba and rolled beyond goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, who failed to get down to the effort in time.
Arsenal were fortunate not to have fallen behind earlier, with Baleba’s looping lob threatening to clear David Raya before Gabriel Magalhaes intervened with a timely recovery to preserve his side’s lead.
Brighton responded with intent and went close through Georginio Rutter, whose fierce drive required a superb stop from Raya, but the visitors could not find the breakthrough their second-half pressure merited.
Former Brighton forward, Leandro Trossard, spurned the chance to put the result beyond doubt late on, slicing well wide from Jurrien Timber’s delivery, though the miss mattered little; Manchester City’s failure to defeat Nottingham Forest at home handed Arsenal a considerable buffer in the title contest.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
