Football: Arsenal aim to rock Brighton in year-ender as title race hots up

LONDON – A year that began dismally for Arsenal will end with the Gunners travelling to Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday – with a first Premier League title for almost 20 years becoming a tantalising possibility.

The contrast could not be greater as they prepare for their New Year’s Eve assignment on the south coast.

Mikel Arteta’s team began 2022 by going five games without a win in all competitions, crashing out of the League Cup, FA Cup and losing ground in the Premier League’s top-four race.

Fast-forward 12 months and Arsenal go into their year’s final fixture with a five-point lead at the top of the table, having won eight of their last nine games.

Even the six-week World Cup break failed to stall their progress and

this week’s 3-1 win over West Ham United

showed that even without the injured Gabriel Jesus, they are equipped to sustain their title tilt.

But the coming weeks will test Arsenal’s resolve.

Brighton, in seventh place, will be no pushovers and next up is high-flying Newcastle United and games against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United.

There is a steely resolve about Arsenal, however, and their fullback Oleksandr Zinchenko, no stranger to title challenges with Manchester City, is confident they have what it takes. “We have such a great group of people. We have this feeling of togetherness,” he told Arsenal’s website.

Brighton took four points off Arsenal last season and also

knocked them out of the League Cup

in November, so Arteta will be well aware of the test his table-toppers face.

“It is going to be a big, big test against that team and we had better be ready,” the Spaniard said.

With Jesus ruled out for several months, Arteta was also relieved to see Eddie Nketiah get on the scoresheet in the win over West Ham.

In his first league start this season, Nketiah bagged the third goal in the London derby as the 23-year-old proved he can be an able deputy for Brazil striker Jesus, who

suffered a knee injury at the World Cup.

While some fans felt Nketiah might struggle to replicate the impressive impact made by Jesus since his close-season move from City, Arteta was confident his young forward could cope.

“He’s a really confident boy,” Arteta said. “But hopefully the goal can give him, if he had any doubts, more confidence about what he is capable of doing.” REUTERS, AFP