Brighton thrash Arsenal to leave Manchester City one win from title

It is surely over bar the shouting. There was plenty of that, in increasingly desperate measure from the Arsenal support but, with their team falling short, it feels safe to say that Manchester City are about to be crowned as the Premier League champions for the fifth time in six seasons.

Arsenal have given it a heck of a roll and it seems like a trick of the mind that many people did not think they would finish in the top four before the start of the campaign. But needing victory to keep alive their title hopes after City had won at Everton earlier in the day, they were brought to their knees by Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton, who gave a second-half masterclass and can scent European qualification for the first time in club history.

Julio Enciso, Brighton’s latest star in the making, scored the first on 51 minutes and when the substitute, Deniz Undav, lobbed home the second towards the end, it was the prompt for De Zerbi to tear along the line in celebration and thousands of Arsenal fans to head for the exits.

Undav’s goal came after Leandro Trossard, on as a substitute for Arsenal to face his former club, had seen an attempted flick snuffed out by Pascal Gross as the home team tried to build from the goalkeeper, Aaron Ramsdale. The ball looped up and back for Undav, who was onside, and Arsenal were broken.

There would be eight additional minutes but no prospect of an Arsenal comeback. Instead, Brighton salted the wounds, Pervis Estupiñán scoring the third after Ramsdale had weakly parried an Undav shot. This time De Zerbi went for a knee slide on the pitch. A Champions League place will probably prove beyond Brighton, the Europa League more likely, but the finest season in their history just keeps on giving. For Arsenal,