Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard sparkle as Arsenal hold off spirited Watford to move into top four

Even allowing for Cucho Hernandez’s spectacular overhead kick, the irresistible skill of Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka proved an unbridgeable gulf in class as Arsenal maintained their top-four charge with a 3-2 victory over Watford at Vicarage Road. This was hardly anticipated as a potential upset, with Watford’s wretched home form at the heart of their increasingly certain slide towards the second division, but this was never a cruise for Mikel Arteta’s side and contained an unnecessarily nerve-riddled finish.

Arsenal had looked to be strolling towards a fourth successive Premier League win after Odegaard and Saka combined to devastating effect inside the opening five minutes. But Hernandez’s outrageous stroke of imagination galvanised Watford and, even after Saka and Gabriel Martinelli reinforced Arsenal’s ascendancy, Roy Hodgson’s side remained threatening and should really have reduced the deficit before Moussa Sissoko added their second after 86 minutes.

It was a resilient display that can still assure faint hope in the relegation fight, but the streak of mettle that has underlined Arsenal’s pursuit of a Champions League place didn’t break here. They now occupy fourth after West Ham faltered and this momentum feels less fragile than the days of old under Arteta. For that, he can take great credit, but there can be no disputing that it was Saka and Odegaard who were the guiding lights again.

Such is the nature of Arsenal, though, that even when things are serene, the yearning for chaos is never too far over the horizon. And so, with just 17 seconds played, the straggling supporters ambling down to their seats were left stopped in their tracks. Directly from kick-off, Joao Pedro cut open a defence still pulling up their socks and Emmanuel Dennis curled a shot past Aaron Ramsdale. For a moment, even Watford’s fans were stunned into silence and only as reality dawned and the stadium erupted did the linesman raise his flag.

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Jolted awake, an unchanged Arsenal side quickly settled into the smooth rhythm that’s guided their march on the top four. It required just four minutes for their rebuttal. Odegaard’s exquisite flick left Hassane Kamara dumbfounded and set Saka free down the right wing, with his return pass no less precise. The Norwegian took the ball in his stride and slotted it into the far corner with magnificent nonchalance.

At that stage, the obituaries for a Watford side who had lost their last seven home games were already being written. Vicarage Road wasn’t so much lacking in optimism as clasping cold hands together and praying for a miracle. Fittingly, it arrived in the 13th minute as Hernandez not only stilled the storm but spun straight through it. Kiko Femenia’s cross was arcing away from goal and well behind the Colombian, but his overhead kick was timed to perfection, with Ramsdale wrong-footed and far from the only one suspended in disbelief as the ball rifled into the net.

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This time the celebrations weren’t cut short and, for a brief few minutes, Watford even threatened to make further inroads on that foothold. With Ismaila Sarr ruled out, it fell to Dennis to all but single-handedly conjure the danger, and there was panic as he cut inside and fired a low shot at goal that nearly squirmed out of Ramsdale’s palms. And yet, before long reality was restored by Arsenal’s most reliable source of inspiration. It was a goal that encapsulated what makes Saka such a fantastic and unreasonably well-rounded player at 20 years old, with the urgency and desire to steal the ball of a dawdling Tom Cleverley; the intelligence and speed to skip through on goal via a deft one-two with Alexandre Lacazette; and then the poise in front of goal to leave Ben Foster a virtual bystander.

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Just seven minutes into the second half, Saka had a literal hand in Arsenal’s third too. Arteta caught the ball as it bounced out of play, passed it to the winger and urged him to take the throw quickly. With Watford unalert, Cedric Soares raced down the line and cut the ball back to Odegaard, who produced another sumptuous flick into the path of Lacazette. For all the Frenchman’s own lack of end product, his hold-up play remains brilliantly understated. His lay-off teed up Martinelli on the edge of the box and the Brazilian took advantage of the abundant space to curl a shot into the top corner.

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In Watford’s defence, as defeat closed in on all sides, they didn’t crumple. Cleverley forced Ramsdale into a smart save at his near post and Dennis wriggled his way past two defenders in the box only to see his own effort blocked. Roy Hodgson was met with boos when he withdrew Imran Louza but they didn’t match the groans as Dennis horribly miscued what should have been a tap-in at the far post.

Arsenal had the chance to settle the match when Eddie Nketiah struck the post soon after coming off the bench and their sloppy defending invited a needlessly nervy finish. A speculative cross reached Sissoko in the box and he shrugged off Ben White and Granit Xhaka all too easily before beating Ramsdale. But for all the anxiety that promptly invaded Arsenal’s travelling fans in the final few minutes, Arteta’s side held on once again. It is a pattern that is becoming increasingly common and almost unnervingly assured.