Premier League: Dominant Arsenal thrash Brighton to go top


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Arsenal regained top spot in the Premier League after goals from Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard secured a thumping 3-0 success which dented Brighton’s push for Europe.

Mikel Arteta’s men arrived at the Amex Stadium on Saturday night having dropped to third place in the table following Manchester City’s 4-2 win at Crystal Palace in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off.

Fit-again top scorer Saka set the Gunners on course to return to the summit by converting a debatable first-half penalty before substitute Trossard sealed victory over his former club following a tap-in from Havertz.

The north London visitors were worthy winners on England's south coast and sit a point ahead of both Liverpool, who play their game in hand at Manchester United on Sunday, and City as attention switches to a Champions League quarter-final tie with Bayern Munich.

Brighton faded from a strong start and, despite being unhappy with the decision to award a spot-kick for Tariq Lamptey’s challenge on Gabriel Jesus, could have few complaints about the result.

The Seagulls’ first top-flight home loss in 13 outings dating back to August leaves them with an uphill task to secure continental football for the second successive year on the back of this season’s Europa League adventure.

England international Saka overcame a muscle injury to start in Sussex and was recalled alongside Declan Rice, Jorginho and Jesus following Wednesday evening’s routine 2-0 win over Luton.

Brighton began brightly in an entertaining opening but it was Arsenal who created – and squandered – a string of early chances.

After Gabriel headed wastefully off target from Martin Odegaard’s free-kick, the lively Saka curled narrowly wide before teeing up Jesus to force a fine diving save out of Bart Verbruggen.

Gunners manager Arteta expressed further frustration on the touchline just two minutes later when Jesus failed to test Seagulls goalkeeper Verbruggen with an unmarked header from a Havertz cross.

For all of their neat interplay, Brighton, whose five changes included a recall for former Arsenal forward Danny Welbeck, were lacking a cutting edge.

Lamptey had been central to the Seagulls’ slick start but moments after returning to the field following treatment he gifted the Gunners a golden chance to edge ahead.

While the full-back brushed the ball with his left foot as he brought down Jesus in the 18-yard box, referee John Brooks had little hesitation in pointing to the spot, allowing Saka to confidently find the bottom left corner from 12 yards and claim his 14th league goal this term.

Unhappy home fans wasted little time in venting displeasure at the perceived injustice of the 33rd-minute opener as the contest slipped into a temporary lull.

Julio Enciso almost enlivened Seagulls supporters with a stunning curling effort from distance, which was clawed away by David Raya, before the match officials were jeered off at the break.

Arsenal could easily have been out of sight at the interval but came back out with plenty still to do.

Jesus and Odegaard each went close to doubling the lead before the Gunners delivered the knockout blow in the 62nd minute.

Jorginho was alert to intercept Enciso’s attempted pass deep in Albion territory and, after receiving the ball back from Odegaard, his low centre from the right was slotted home by Havertz in front of the sold-out away end.

Arteta exuberantly celebrated the strike and promptly withdrew Saka and Jesus ahead of Tuesday’s European first leg at home to Bayern.

Roberto De Zerbi’s injury-hit hosts had little answer to the two-goal deficit and contributed to their own undoing for the Gunners’ third as Trossard, who left Albion last year, rubbed salt into their wounds four minutes from time.

Pascal Gross’ dithering allowed Havertz to release Belgium forward Trossard and he ran half the length of the pitch before dinking over Verbruggen to seal Arsenal’s 10th league win from 11 outings in 2024.

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Review: Tomb Raider
Dir: Roar Uthaug
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Daniel Wu, Walter Goggins
​​​​​​​two stars

Key changes

Commission caps

For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:

• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term). 

• On the protection component, there is a cap  of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).

• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated. 

• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.

• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.

Disclosure

Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.

“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”

Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.

Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.

“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.

Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.

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ICC Academy: 10am, Scotland v Singapore, 2.10pm, Netherlands v Kenya

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Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Rameez Shahzad, Darius D’Silva, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zawar Farid, Ghulam Shabber, Junaid Siddique, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Waheed Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Zahoor Khan

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Players in: Junaid Siddique, Darius D’Silva, Waheed Ahmed

Updated: April 06, 2024, 6:57 PM`