When did "star boy" begin to feel like a grossly insufficient label for Bukayo Saka? For all that it must be very nice to be described in such a fashion, there is a sense of incompletion to Saka's nickname. It suggests the idea that he is still a nova, that he is yet to develop the gravitational force of the Premier League's very greatest.
Nothing could be further from the truth. If there is one thing that unites the best players in this league -- and by extension in world football -- it is that they only need half an opening to change the course of the contest. The Emirates Stadium had that hammered home to it last month; Takehiro Tomiyasu undercooked a pass back to Aaron Ramsdale, who was trapped in no man's land. Still, if Kevin De Bruyne were to score he would need to hook the ball around and over the Arsenal goalkeeper at full tilt, getting enough power on it to outrun recovering defenders without overcooking a shot that might naturally loop or even bounce over the bar. Of course, he did.
Make a mistake against the very best in the league and they will make you pay. And so it was when Everton's largely exceptional defense left a gap on the right corner of the penalty area, Saka filled it before a blue shirt could spot the danger. Oleksandr Zinchenko slipped him into the first prime position an Arsenal player had found all night but there was still plenty to do. His first two touches allowed him to get in stride but the angle was narrowing and with Vitaliy Mykolenko in hot pursuit, there would be no time to take a touch to move the ball onto his stronger left foot.
His right did the job empathically, disproving in a stroke the old adage that a goalkeeper should never be beaten at his near post. If Jordan Pickford had got a fingertip on the ball both might have ended up in the back of the net.
In an instance, the tension eased, a game that had seemed bound to be decided in the final 10 minutes morphing into an emphatic 4-0 win that extends Arsenal's lead to five points at the top of the Premier League. With Manchester City to face Newcatle, Crystal Palace and Liverpool in the next three games, one could envisage this as the start of the period when the Gunners open up a gap.
No one saw that coming after a grotty first half hour, one in which Everton defended in numbers and broke with purpose and Brazilian center back Gabriel was perhaps the best player on the pitch. Equally, the Toffees did not have the player who wins a game in a moment. Frankly, in Neal Maupay they have one who simply does not cut the mustard among Premier League forwards. Twice in the early exchanges, he spurned promising chances, curling into Aaron Ramsdale's arms when given space to turn on the edge of the box before concluding a dangerous counter with an anemic backheel.
Everton might not have looked like a team who were going to score but they did not much like conceding for 39 minutes, restricting their hosts to a Jorginho strike from the edge of the box. It likely was not the opener that broke the resolve of Sean Dyche's men but instead the second moments later, one where Idrissa Gueye initially appeared to have had the ball whipped off his feet by Saka for an offside Gabriel Martinelli to net his 10th of the Premier League season. The Brazilian had been deemed to be ahead of play at first viewing but VAR swiftly concluded that he had just about been onside.
Bar a brief flurry from Demarai Gray, Everton understandably concluded that there was no better strategy for the second half than to preserve their legs for the relegation battle ahead, starting with Sunday's anxiety-inducing trip to Nottingham. Martin Odegaard and Martinelli helped to chip away at City's goal-difference advantage in a second half where Arsenal grew ever more authoritative and incisive.
They might never have got there if it weren't for their best player. He's a starman, playing on the right. His name is Bukayo Saka ... You may well know how the rest of that chant goes.
