Brighton & Hove Albion 0-1 Arsenal
Burnley 1-0 Sheffield United
Southampton 0-0 West Ham United
SUBSTITUTE ALEXANDRE LACAZETTE made an instant impact as Arsenal continued their resurgence by scraping a 1-0 win which prolonged Brighton’s miserable home record.
Lacazette, dropped to the bench to accommodate recalled captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, coolly bagged the second-half winner just 21 seconds after replacing Gabriel Martinelli.
The Frenchman’s decisive 66th-minute strike made it back-to-back wins for the Gunners to move them nine points clear of the relegation zone and further ease the mounting pressure on head coach Mikel Arteta.
Beleaguered Brighton remain just two points above the drop zone after failing to end their lengthy wait for a victory at the Amex Stadium.
The Seagulls, who lacked a cutting edge throughout, end 2020 with a solitary home win from 17 top-flight fixtures and with plenty of work to do in the new year.
Arsenal arrived on the south coast as the only team to have lost a league match here during the past 12 months following a 2-1 reverse in June but buoyed by Boxing Day’s overdue 3-1 win over Chelsea.
With both clubs struggling to regularly find the net, it was perhaps unsurprising that there was a lack of killer instinct at either end during a forgettable first half dominated by an abundance of neat passing.
Gunners keeper Bernd Leno denied Davy Propper a goal on his first Premier League appearance of the season, before the visitors were rewarded for an improved second-half showing with what proved to be the winner.
England international Bukayo Saka burst down the right flank and pulled the ball back, allowing Lacazette to clinically find the bottom right corner and score for the third successive game in all competitions.
At Turf Moor, Ben Mee gave Burnley reason to celebrate amid reports of the club’s imminent American takeover as his goal sent relegation favourites Sheffield United into the new year winless in the Premier League.
With sports investment firm ALK said to be on the verge of assuming control of the Clarets, Mee headed in a first-half Robbie Brady corner for the game’s only goal, giving Sean Dyche’s side a vital buffer over the bottom three.
News of a coronavirus outbreak at United had briefly raised question marks over the viability of the fixture – with boss Chris Wilder only able to name seven substitutes after two players and “four or five” backroom staff returned positive tests.
United now sit with a meagre haul of two points from 16 games, the first top-flight team without a victory at this point on the calendar since Bolton in 1902/03.
At St Mary’s, Southampton recorded their second successive goalless draw in a cagey match against West Ham.
Having already slipped out of the European places following a hard-fought draw at Fulham on St Stephen’s Day, Southampton were unable to bounce back in the absence of manager Ralph Hasenhuttl, who is in self-isolation after a member of his household tested positive for Covid-19.
David Moyes brought on Said Benrahma, Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio in the second half in an attempt to find a way through the home defence, but despite some late pressure they were unable to make the breakthrough.
