Arsenal may be five points clear at the top of the Premier League, but it’s impossible not to focus on Bukayo Saka.
The Gunners won their game in hand to take a commanding lead over rivals Manchester City in convincing fashion, thumping Everton 4-0 to also give their goal difference a boost.
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Gabriel Martinelli netted a double, while Martin Odegaard also scored, but again, the story was Saka’s opener.
Sean Dyche’s Everton looked worryingly resilient for the home fans at the Emirates in the opening 35 minutes, and Mikel Arteta’s record of one win in six against the former Burnley boss will have caused concern.
However, there to break the deadlock was Saka in the 40th minute, collecting Oleksandr Zinchenko’s pass, and taking it away from the goal on his weaker right foot.
That decision wasn’t a problem at all, though, as he unleashed the ball off his right boot and ripped it into the roof of the net before Jordan Pickford even knew what had hit him.
It showed just another weapon in the 21-year-old’s increasingly large tool box, as he continues an extraordinary rise to prominence.
In the Premier League, only Erling Haaland and Harry Kane have been involved in more goals than Saka’s 19 (10 goals, nine assists) while he leads the league in dribbles past opponents with 41.
On top of that, he extended his ironman streak to 67 consecutive league games, bagging 21 goals and 17 assists in that run.
“Arsenal have so many exciting players,” TalkTV host and Gooner Piers Morgan posted on Twitter. “But Saka is rapidly emerging as Top Gunner. What a star.”
There’s more good news for Arsenal fans too, with three of the four highest scoring under 21s in Europe’s top five leagues their property.
Folarin Balogun heads that list on loan at Reims with 15 goals, and is followed by Martinelli (11), Jamal Musiala (11) and Saka on ten.
Saka continues to be crucial, with all ten of those either equalisers or goals that often securing big points.
That was the case again against Everton, which Arteta stressed when speaking to talkSPORT.
“I think he was really good again and that’s what we wanted,” he said. “Those players are defining moments in games that can give us wins.”
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