EPL: Saka, Odegaard Shine In 5-Star Win Over Norwich

A five star performance it was for Arsenal on Sunday as they continued their fine form on boxing day fixtures with a roaring 5-0 win away at bottom placed Norwich City.

The Gunners were two goals up by half time courtesy of Bukayo Saka and Kieran Tierney. The England international grabbed his second after the interval, before Alexandre Lacazette won and scored a penalty, then substitute, Emile Smith Rowe coming on to score in his fourth consecutive game to complete the rout.

Angus Gunn was in goal deputising for Tim Krul, who was out with Covid-19 and Arsenal remained unchanged from their win against Leeds, except for the ill Takehiro Tomiyasu, who was replaced by Rob Holding, sending Ben White out to the right side of defence.

It didn't take long for the visitors to get the ball rolling as Martin Odegaard found Saka on the right side. The England youngster cut into his favored left foot and hit a low shot into the far bottom corner through the bodies in the Norwich box.

There were flying tempers in between as Arsenal players went in with strong but clean challenges, much to the annoyance of the Norwich players and fans. This resulting tussles led to Granit Xhaka getting booked as well as Przemyslaw Placheta, who shoved Ben White for a nudge on his teammate.

The lead was cushioned for Arsenal just before half time as Odegaard again timed his pass well to mee the surge of Kieran Tierney into the left side of attack. The left back took a good first touch that pulled him through into the 18-yard box before hitting a low shot into the bottom far corner in off the post.

The second half was no different from the first as Arsenal continued domination and got the ball into the back of the net not long after the restart for the third time on the day through a Gabriel Martinelli deflected shot. His goal was ruled out after a VAR review as he was offside while receiving the ball from White.

The third goal eventually came off the boots of another youngster, with Saka collecting the ball from Lacazette. He turned and tried to find a way beyond his marker, before eventually driving unto his left foot and hitting a similar shot as the first into the bottom corner.

Emile Smith Rowe was on for Martinelli and continued to make impact as his no-look pass was collected by Lacazette, but the Frenchman was brought down by Ozan Kabak in the box. Lacazette stepped up and dispatched the kick this time for Arsenal fourth.

Smith Rowe took his influence a notch higher in the first minute of added time as he scored again from the bench when Nicolas Pepe's shot was deflected into his part at the far post for him to poke home. The goal was subjected to VAR review for a possible offside, but stood afterwards.

Concluding Thoughts

Another impressive outing from Arsenal as they scored their 9th goal in two away matches, conceding just one, which is a big improvement from the beginning of the season when they were languishing at the bottom half.

I'm tempted to say Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been the problem for Arsenal as the team has been on the rise since his exclusion from the team. Lacazette has done a wonderful job in his place and I have always preferred the Frenchman over him due to his overall play and not, which I feel is better than Aubameyang's.

The youthfulness of the core of the Arsenal team has continued to bear fruits for them as four of the five goals were scored by players 21 or under, which has been the case this season. The young ones who are still meant to be growing are already shouldering the problems of the club. I'm hoping this will not come back to haunt them when experience will be required to see off games in the long run since the older players have failed to deliver.

For Norwich, they remain bottom of the log with just 10 points and would now require a miracle now to stay up. The arrival of Dean Smith does not seem to have stemmed the tide as their fortunes continue to nosedive. I just hope he'd be given more time with the team, even if they go down.