Football writer Sam Cunningham assesses the latest developments in the title race as second-placed Manchester City and third-placed Aston Villa both drop points.
Over to you, Arsenal.
The Gunners were handed an invaluable chance to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table to eight points after chasers Manchester City and Aston Villa dropped big points in their respective matches on Wednesday night.
Man City missed a succession of extraordinary chances in a 1-1 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion, while Villa were held to a goalless draw by Crystal Palace.
It now presents Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side with a glorious opportunity to take a step closer to the club’s first Premier League trophy since 2004, albeit with a potentially problematic match at home to Liverpool on Thursday night.
Man City rue wasteful finishing and injuries in defence
Given the momentum City built in December – when they won all five of their Premier League games to ramp up pressure on the leaders – they have stumbled in their title charge with three draws in the space of seven days and six points dropped at the start of 2026.
But how different it could have been. City were twice gifted the ball by Brighton inside their own penalty area – Bernardo Silva hit a post with a chance to make it 2-0 early in the second half and then, in the 81st minute, Erling Haaland was unable to beat Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen.
Pep Guardiola has not been helped by a fresh defensive injury crisis. Josko Gvardiol requires surgery on a broken shinbone and Ruben Dias is out for up to six weeks with a hamstring problem.
Both injuries were sustained in the draw against Chelsea on Sunday.
The pair have been Guardiola’s main centre-back partnership this season and the City manager had, until the Brighton match, played the same back four in 12 out of 20 matches. That stability has been shattered.
Max Alleyne, the 20-year-old centre-back, was recalled early from a season-long loan from Watford and immediately thrust into the starting XI by Guardiola against Brighton.
Struggling with injury, Nathan Ake had started only two Premier League games this season, but was handed his third in the circumstances.
Brighton exposed that defensive uncertainty, running in behind multiple times in the first half, but were unable to convert the chances.
Instead, City took the lead just before half-time when Diego Gomez tripped the tricky Jeremy Doku to concede a penalty and Haaland tucked the spot-kick into the bottom-right corner.
It brought up the striker’s 150th Man City goal in only 173 matches – a quite stunning and unrivalled conversion rate. Alan Shearer, the next-fastest, scored 150 goals for clubs in 201 games.
It was also Haaland’s 20th Premier League strike of the campaign, making him the first player in Europe’s top five leagues to hit the milestone.
As Opta revealed, it was also the 35,000th Premier League goal.
It was not, however, enough. Kaoru Mitoma levelled, with a shimmy and finessed finish into the bottom-right corner, leaving City to regret missed chances to secure three points, having finished the game with 22 shots.
Haaland also had a header cleared off the line, while City could even have lost had Brighton’s Gomez not somehow missed an open goal, striking the ball with his heel to send it off target.
“The result is what it is,” Guardiola told Sky Sports. “Similar to the last two games. We played fantastic. The way we played I’m pleased for many things. We bring energy in the last 15 to 20 minutes but we missed a lot.
“It’s a fair result. To score goals is part of it and we didn’t do it. We didn’t score, that’s all.”
Guardiola was unsure why his players were unable to find the winner. “Sometimes we score, sometimes we don’t,” he said. “The chances were there. We have to continue to try to do it.”
Villa and Watkins denied
Perhaps Villa’s struggle to beat Crystal Palace was more predictable. Palace have become Villa’s bogey team in recent seasons, and this was the seventh match in all competitions they have failed to beat them.
Like City, Villa enjoyed a fruitful December, winning five league matches and losing only one, to Arsenal, to end an 11-game winning run.
So a goalless draw with Palace will feel like a missed opportunity for Unai Emery to overtake City into second and close the gap on Arsenal.
Striker Ollie Watkins had scored four goals in his last three games and had chances to win it for Villa, but he was denied by a Dean Henderson save, Maxence Lacroix blocking on the line and, late on, the woodwork.
Villa’s failure to find the target ended a 10-game scoring run in the Premier League.
The result, against an out-of-form Palace side now winless in six league matches, will raise questions about Villa’s ability to hang on in the title race.
Emery has previously played down their chances and he may be proved right if Arsenal pull away significantly.
While Man City might have the pedigree and experience to put together the kind of winning streak to make up ground, it feels extremely unlikely that Villa would be able to do the same.
Can Arsenal avoid a second loss to Liverpool this season?
It still all depends on Arsenal’s ability to maintain their relentless form – winning comfortably but also grinding out wins in tight games having already come through their own defensive injury crisis.
How Arsenal perform against Liverpool on Thursday, with the chance to put more crucial distance between them and the pursuing City and Villa, can set the tone for the remainder of the season.
Arsenal have lost only two games all season, but one of those was against Liverpool at Anfield way back in August, and Liverpool boss Arne Slot is starting to stabilise his side again after an awful spell between the end of September and end of November. They are now unbeaten in nine games, winning five and drawing four.
Arteta will, nonetheless, relish the opportunity in a huge match at the Emirates Stadium to put down a marker in the title race after several near misses.
Three more points against Liverpool will send out a message and give him some welcome breathing space in the months ahead.