Arsenal stretches lead at the top of Premier League after Man City held by Everton

Arsenal couldn’t have asked for a much better end to the year.

The Gunners stretched their Premier League lead to seven points with a 4-2 win at Brighton on Saturday, having seen their two closest challengers — Manchester City and Newcastle — both drop points earlier in the day.

Perhaps it’s really time to start believing for a team that hasn’t won the league title since the unbeaten “Invincibles” did so in 2004.

“Of course at the start of the season if you asked us if we wanted this (position at New Year’s) we would bite your hand off,” said Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka, who netted the first goal against Brighton after little more than a minute. “It is a great opportunity we have, and it’s a great place we have put ourselves in.”

Martin Odegaard and Eddie Nketiah also scored to put Arsenal 3-0 up by the 47th and seemingly cruising to an easy win, but the visitors still endured an unnecessarily nervy finish as Brighton’s resistance only ended when an 89th-minute goal that would have made it 4-3 was ruled out for offside after a VAR check.

That helped Mikel Arteta’s side take full advantage of City’s slip-up earlier in the day, when another goal from Erling Haaland wasn’t enough to prevent the defending champion from being held to a 1-1 home draw by Everton thanks to a stunning equalizer from Demarai Gray. Third-place Newcastle also saw a six-game winning streak end with a 0-0 draw against Leeds.

Manchester City held

Haaland seemed to have made the difference for City once again when Riyad Mahrez slalomed his way through the area and pulled back for the Norway striker, who finished clinically on the turn for his 21st league goal.

But Gray responded for Everton when he burst into the area, held the ball up — and nearly slipped in the process — before curling a sublime effort inside the far post just after the hour.

“Dropping points at home is always tough but I’m always trying to make our game good and we have continued to do it,” City manager Pep Guardiola said. “They made a fantastic goal and when that happens you say congratulations but in general we did really well.”

Newcastle streak ends

Newcastle was on a run of six straight Premier League wins but couldn’t find a way past Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier.

Defender Fabian Schar had the best chances but wasted three good opportunities as Leeds held firm to end a two-game losing streak.

“The desire was there, the quality was there but the finishing wasn’t there. We had a number of opportunities that normally we take,” Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said.

Still, he called 2022 “a year of real progress” as the team is fighting for a top-four finish under its new Saudi ownership.

“There are big challenges ahead but we look forward to those,” Howe said.