LONDON: Arsenal maintained their narrow lead over Manchester City and Tottenham with a decisive 3-0 London derby win at Brentford. The Gunners took control so effectively that manager Mikel Arteta could afford to send on forward Ethan Nwaneri for his debut at 15 years 181 days – the youngest player in Premier League history.

Brentford had been unbeaten in their previous three games They could have climbed to fifth in the table but Arteta’s men shut them out. Brentford centre-forward Ivan Toney never had a chance to celebrate having become the first Brentford player called up for England since 1939.

William Saliba has been outstanding in defence since returning this season from loan to Marseille and also opened the scoring with his second goal of term. Brazil forward Jesus vindicated his £45m move from Manchester City by heading his fourth while Portuguese midfielder Vieira scored No3 to mark his first start since joining from Porto.

Arsenal never missed captain Martin Odegaard who was absent through injury. Granit Xhaka was solid in midfield while England winger Bukayo Saka was outstanding in attack and provided two assists. This was Arsenal’s third clean-sheet away win of the season.

If the Gunners maintain this consistency then they will be back in the Champions League next season for the first time since 2016-17.

Arteta credited academy director Per Mertesacker with playing a key role in the promotion of Nwaneri. He said: “Per gave me good feelings about him. He’s trained with us a couple of times and then I had the feeling from yesterday that if the opportunity could come I was going to do it.”

Asked what he said to Nwaneri, Arteta said: “I told him: ‘Congratulations. Enjoy it.”

French striker Neal Maupay scored his first goal for Everton to provide their first win of the season 1:0 at home to West Ham. Maupay was playing his second game after a £15m transfer from Brighton in August.

West Ham were UEFA Conference winners against Silkeborg in midweek but a fifth league defeat left them 18th and in the relegation zone. Their total of three goals is the joint fewest in the league.

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