Michael Owen has lavished praise on Arsenal's man-of-the-moment Bukayo Saka after his "absolutely brilliant" goal in the 4-0 thumping over Everton on Wednesday.
The Gunners took full advantage of their game in hand over chasing rivals Manchester City by extending their lead at the top to five points with a resounding victory at the Emirates Stadium.
Saka has been in electric form this season and opened the scoring five minutes before half-time with a simply sumptuous strike. Oleksandr Zinchenko split Everton's defence open with a fizzing pass into Saka, who - with his back to goal - turned as he controlled the ball on his back-foot, before using his other to drag it round in front of him.
His perfect control set him up perfectly to shoot, as he fired hard and high past Jordan Pickford into the top corner at his near post, leaving former Premier League marksman Owen waxing lyrical after the game.
"It was a real bit of quality that broke the deadlock," Owen said on Premier League Productions. "It was everything we associate with Arsenal really.
"They were proving and trying and then, eventually, a little gap opened and they exploited it. It was a brilliant finish from Saka, absolutely brilliant."
Owen continued: "The problem defenders have with him is he can go one or two ways, can’t he? If you watch the shape of his body. He gets himself between his body and the danger man, it’s really good forward play. to protect the ball like that.
"At the last minute, he decides to take it on his right, then nobody could get near him. What a finish it was."
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Saka's goal was his 10th in the Premier League this season, putting him joint-seventh in the division and second-highest in Arsenal's squad, behind only Gabriel Martinelli. His Brazilian teammate managed to edge ahead of Saka after following up the opener with two goals of his own.
Martinelli delivered a sucker-punch to Everton's hopes in first-half injury time after Saka pressured Idrissa Gueye to nick the ball from him and set his teammate away to slot home past Pickford.
Martin Odegaard added a third 71 minutes in when he finished off Leandro Trossard's cut-back before Martinelli bagged his second in similar fashion, turning home Eddie Nketiah's cross at the near post to settle the match.
Speaking after the game, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said: " Once we scored the first goal, the game unlocked. We needed a magic moment and Bukayo produced that. After that we grew and deserved to win the game."
Adding of Saka and Martinelli, he said: " It’s a credit to them because in the end, they have to do it themselves, but we try to help them with our way of playing by trying to get them in those positions as much as possible.
“They are so willing to learn, they are asking for more and more every single day, and they never have enough information, they want more.
“They want the space, they want the practice and at the end when you have that and you have the talent that they have and the ideas that they have, at the end good things will happen.”
