LITTLE BIT OF ART AND SOUL

Odegaard, Rice and Saka highlight vital role they will need to play in title quest

- NEIL MCLEMAN'S

THE good news for Arsenal fans is that the Gunners held off a late Brighton fightback to return to the top of the table.

The bad news is that there is potentially another five months of this nerve-jangling anxiety to go this season.

Mikel Arteta's side passed this latest test at the Emirates with the help of another own goal - as well as big performances from their big players.

As they chase the Quadruple, the trio of Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice combined to score the opening goal and calm the nervous atmosphere building even in the early minutes. And they then kept calm and carried on at the end after Diego Gomez's shot halved the deficit and doubled the heart-rate.

It had been a whipped corner from Rice which saw Arsenal benefit from a fourth own goal in their last three matches after the break.

Yet it needed a stunning late save by keeper David Raya from a Yankuba Minteh shot to secure the three points.

The run-in promises to be a fraught affair for Gunners fans, without a Premier League title since 2004.