Brighton 0-1 Arsenal: Bukayo Saka's early strike sends Gunners seven points clear at top of Premier League

Arsenal ground out a 1-0 win over Brighton to capitalise on Manchester City's slip-up against Nottingham Forest and move seven points clear at the top of the Premier League.

As their title rivals were held to a 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium, Bukayo Saka's deflected, eighth-minute strike proved decisive for the Gunners in a scrappy, fractious encounter on the south coast.

Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler said "only one side tried to play football" after the game as he accused the Gunners of time-wasting tactics involving David Raya, who received treatment on three occasions. Mikel Arteta responded by saying "what a surprise".

Saka's goal, which squirmed past Bart Verbruggen after taking a touch off Carlos Baleba, came from one of only two shots on target by Arsenal, who laboured in possession but excelled defensively.

Brighton dominated most of the game, registering 60 per cent of the possession, but Arsenal, led by defenders Gabriel and Piero Hincapie, and without the injured William Saliba, could not be breached.

Brighton's best chance came after only two minutes, when David Raya sent a pass straight to Baleba, whose attempted chip had to be cleared off the line by Gabriel.

The hosts pinned Arsenal in their own half for long periods, but only mustered a further two shots on target, with Raya saving well from Georginio Rutter as the home fans became increasingly frustrated by the perceived time-wasting from the visitors.

Arsenal had a chance to put the game beyond Brighton when substitute Kai Havertz had a diagonal effort saved by Verbruggen, but their slender lead meant they had to survive a nervy finale.

The final whistle, and news of Manchester City's draw with Forest, prompted wild celebrations from the travelling fans as Arsenal opened up a seven-point gap, albeit having played a game more.

Hurzeler: Only one team tried to play football

Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler slammed Arsenal's approach in an explosive press conference, saying: "We could have even created more chances, but overall, like you said, in the end we lost, so we are all disappointed regarding the performance.

"I love the effort from my boys, I loved how they played football. I think there was only one team who tried to play football today and therefore I'm proud of how they did it.

"I ask one question, did you see in the Premier League game a goalkeeper going down three times? No? So I think we shouldn't waste too many words about that tonight.

"We should focus on us, we should focus on our performance. We can't control these kind of things.

"I think therefore the Premier League has to find the rule and it's not my business. I made my point before the game and I stick to it."

Arteta: I love my players

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta offered only short responses to his opposite number's criticism, saying: "What a surprise."

Asked if he could expand on that comment, he said: "You just go back to the previous games and you'll find a lot of comments like this always.

"I love my players. That's the highlight. I love my players, we love our players and I love the way we compete."

Asked if he cared about the comments of other managers, he said: "Care? Yeah. Depends." Depends on the manager? "Yeah, and the comments. And the purpose of that.

"Obviously, when you are in the position that we are in, they want to take that away from you. That's normal, that's sport.

"We need to take that with normality and we need to confront it in the right way."

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