Arsenal claimed their ninth win in ten Premier League games on Sunday as Bukayo Saka 's understanding with Martin Odegaard continues to blossom.
The pair have played together for 18 months now and it was the England winger who scored the winner for the Gunners at Leeds United. His first-half strike was enough to send the north Londoners four points clear at the top as their impressive start to the campaign continues.
Much is made of the youthfulness of this Arsenal side, but they keep overcoming hurdles that are put in front of them. Odegaard, who was named captain in the summer, continues to grow in stature whilst Saka, despite his age, has a wealth of experience and is forming quite the partnership with his No 10.
The winger said on the Norwegian: “I know the quality Martin [Odegaard] has, so as soon as he had the ball, I tried to be ready to make the run wherever he wanted to give it to me. Luckily I was on the end of it.”
Saka's strike at Elland Road was his fourth in the space of a week following his brace against Liverpool and a midweek winner in the Europa League against Bodo/Glimt. Arsenal did not have it all their own way in Yorkshire as Leeds failed to take their opportunities.
Patrick Bamford missed from the spot before Leeds had a second penalty overturned by VAR in stoppage time as well as a goal disallowed. That came amidst a lengthy delay due to electronic issues with the referee as Mikel Arteta hailed his side's fighting spirit.
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He said: "We left the game open and from the beginning - from the first whistle in the second half we started not at the rhythm, not making the right decisions time after time. We put ourselves in big trouble. But then when you get into those moments, I love the resilience, the fight the character and the courage the team showed to win the game.
The Spaniard added: "We made it difficult for ourselves because we didn’t close the game in the first half when we should have done. In the second half we made too many mistakes, and just gave opportunities and belief to Leeds. Credit to them, I think in the second half they were really good. Incredible atmosphere, and I think they deserve credit for that as well."
Aaron Ramsdale, who kept another clean sheet, echoed his manager's thoughts: “It’s just one of those emotions where now we’ve set our bar so high, standards-wise of how we want to play, and we didn’t reach that. But the overriding emotion is elation because we got three points and a 1-0 win away from home.”
