LONDON, Oct 10: Bukayo Saka has come a long way since missing that decisive penalty in the shootout at the European Championship final.
More than a year later — and with his most important spot kick since — Saka stepped up and coolly converted his effort to give Arsenal a 3-2 win over Liverpool and keep the Gunners at the summit of the Premier League.
It wasn’t quite the last kick of the game this time, but it had the feel of it. Saka had to wait a couple of minutes as players from both sides got involved in a fracas. And the nerves were building.
But he buried it.
“I’ve been practicing all the time. I don’t know what was going on — a few bits of fighting. I don’t know if they were trying to delay or to get into my head. But you know I had what I was going to do in my mind and stuck with it, and happy that it went in.”
Saka has taken — and scored — other penalties since his miss for England in the Euro 2020 final against Italy at Wembley Stadium in July last year.
But it was the significance of Sunday’s penalty that earned him plaudits. After all, it returned Arsenal back into first place above Manchester City.
Saka had stepped forward ahead of many other older, more experienced players in the Euro 2020 final to take what proved to be England’s final penalty, which was saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The penalty on Sunday, which came after Liverpool midfielder Thiago Alcantara ran his studs down Gabriel Jesus’ calf, was Saka’s second goal of the match. The England star scored before halftime to make it 2-1.
The Gunners had a dream start as Gabriel Martinelli scored after 58 seconds but Liverpool grew into the game, with Darwin Núñez equalizing in the 34th minute.
Arsenal restored the team’s lead just before halftime in the fifth minute of added time when Saka tapped in from close range to make it 2-1. But the visitors were back on level terms again in the 53rd when substitute Roberto Firmino latched onto a through ball to score from a tight angle to make it 2-2 with his sixth goal of the season.
But it wasn’t enough for Liverpool to hold on as the team’s poor start to the season continues. Thiago’s challenge on Jesus looked innocuous in real time, but replays showed he clearly made contact with his fellow Brazilian.
After Saka’s penalty, Arsenal had to buckle down as Liverpool threatened yet another equalizer right at the end. Defenders Ben White and William Saliba jumped into each other’s arms at the final whistle as the crowd at Emirates Stadium erupted into chants of “We are top of the league.”
Arsenal is in first place with 24 points, a point ahead of City. Liverpool is 14 points off the top in 10th place.
Man United win at Everton
Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 700th club goal of his career to earn Manchester United a 2-1 victory at Everton that moved his team a point off the Premier League’s top four on Sunday.
The 37-year-old Ronaldo was only on the field due to Anthony Martial’s inability to run off an injury sustained in the warmup, but it was no great surprise the substitute seized his opportunity.
Ronaldo had been previously limited to just 207 minutes in the league by United’s recently hired manager, Erik ten Hag.
But, while the Portugal international may not be ideally suited to those requirements, he can still show a turn of pace and an unerring eye for goal when he has to and that is exactly how he brought up his landmark shortly before halftime.
Antony’s neat finish in the 15th minute had canceled out Alex Iwobi’s sumptuous curling strike in the fifth to turn the momentum in United’s favor, but it was a passage of mistakes which presented Ronaldo with his moment in history.
Casemiro gave away possession to Iwobi, only for the Everton midfielder to run the ball straight into the path of his opponent, whose immediate response was to send Ronaldo scampering clear down the left.
There was only one thought in his mind as he bore down on goal and his low, left-footed strike whistled past England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford at his near post.
The buildup to the goal typified a scrappy game which was interspersed with moments of absolute quality. (AP)
