Martin Odegaard scored his first goal of the season to help Arsenal beat Brighton and regain their place at the top of the Premier League – but it was their goalkeeper who produced the moment of the match.
With the Gunners holding on to a slender 2-1 lead in the final 15 minutes at a nervy Emirates Stadium, Brighton substitute Yankuba Minteh’s brilliant curling strike from the edge of the box looked destined for the top corner.
Step forward David Raya.
The Spain international somehow produced an incredible piece of athleticism to tip the ball over the bar and prevent Brighton from coming two goals down to level.
“It was sensational,” Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta told Sky Sports. “I had a great angle on it.
“That’s what we need from players, we need those performances in the key moments.”
Former England captain Alan Shearer, working as a pundit for Match of the Day, described the save as “one of the best you’ll see all season”.
“You see all the Arsenal players would have gone straight to Raya to thank him for it because it was a big save at such an important stage of the game,” ex-Republic of Ireland midfielder Andy Reid added on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Arsenal dominated large parts of the first half, registering 15 shots and limiting Brighton to none.
Arteta said that the “margin should have been much bigger” and that “it should never be 2-1” given the number of chances the Gunners created.
“That turned out to be a lot more difficult for Arsenal than it should have been,” added Shearer.
“They got huge success behind both Brighton wing-backs in the first half with Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard causing all sorts of damage.
“But Brighton changed things at half-time with a double substitution. As soon as they got their goal Arsenal were suddenly under pressure from nowhere.”
Arsenal ‘surviving’ injury tests – Arteta
Arsenal‘s victory over Brighton felt like a match that had been played multiple times already this season.
The Gunners dominated play, missed chances and had to deal with injuries to key players – something that has tested their squad since the opening match of the campaign, with forward Kai Havertz missing with a knee injury since then.
On Saturday, Arsenal were without the injured Jurrien Timber and lost Riccardo Calafiori in the warm-up, meaning left-back Myles Lewis-Skelly stepped into the starting line-up at short notice.
There was some good news, with centre-back Gabriel returning as a second-half substitute following his injury lay-off.
Arteta said his side have been “surviving” the challenges thrown at them for six months and the injuries to key players are “uniting” the squad.
“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,” he said.
“The good news as well, we’ve got Gabi [Gabriel] earlier than expected, which is great.”
This is the second week in a row where Manchester City have played before Arsenal and gone top of the Premier League, with the Gunners having to respond.
But Arteta says his squad are relishing the challenge they face as they try to win the Premier League for the first time since 2004.
“We can only control what we do. We’re doing a lot of good things that I think that we have to improve as well,” he said, adding that playing “every three days is going to be a challenge and we are up for it”.
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