Arsenal winners and losers as opportunity goes begging in unconvincing victory

Bukayo Saka scored the winner as Arsenal maintained their 100 per cent record in the Europa League with victory over Bodo/Glimt on Thursday evening.

The England prodigy finished a fine move which he set in motion in the 24th minute, benefitting from a hefty deflection to fire the hosts in front against their Norwegian opposition.

Mikel Arteta made numerous changes to his first-choice starting XI and some fringe players excelled, but the Gunners struggled to control the match as they did against the same opposition one week earlier. Bodo/Glimt had chances to equalise and were a regular threat on the counter-attack, only to be let down by their misfiring forwards.

Here are the winners and losers from Aspmyra Stadion.

Winners

Bukayo Saka

Fans have grown accustomed to seeing this name in the winners' section in recent years.

This time, Saka etched his name in the column not by means of the fortunate deflection which gave Arsenal the lead, but by virtue of the brilliant run and movement he showed to create the chance.

Saka collected the ball on the right flank, dashed infield and played a quick one-two with Albert Sambi Lokonga before seeing his shot take a heavy deflection on its way past Nikita Khaikin.

The goal marked Saka's third in two matches after he produced a brilliant performance in last weekend's victory over Liverpool.

Albert Sambi Lokonga

The Belgian may have spent much of the season on the fringes, but his was a sharp midfield performance full of energy and endeavour.

Not only did Lokonga provide the assist for Saka's opener, he ended the match with a brilliant pass completion ratio of 97 per cent, with 57 of his 59 passes reaching their target.

He was a metronome in the centre of the park for the Gunners and it was no surprise to see him complete 90 minutes in the Europa League for the third successive match.

Lokonga, 22, will undoubtedly find it hard to displace one of Thomas Partey or Granit Xhaka in the starting XI for Premier League fixtures, but all he can do in the meantime is continue to position himself well with dominant performances in European competition.

Can Arsenal go all the way in the Europa League this season? Have your say in the comments!

Losers

Amahl Pellegrino

With chances at a premium for the hosts, the striker simply had to do better when played in on goal in the 29th minute.

Pellegrino opted to try and wrap his foot around the ball and curl beyond Matt Turner when through one-on-one, but got his connection all wrong - in the extreme. Instead of brushing the ball into the far corner, the Norwegian only made contact with the outside of his boot and only succeeded in scooping well wide of the mark.

It was an embarrassing moment - and a costly one which came just five minutes after Bogo/Glimt fell behind. Had Pellegrino converted, the match could have unfolded in a very different manner.

It was a similar story early in the second half, when Pellegrino saw his effort on the break saved by a strong hand from Turner, who will be delighted to have kept another clean sheet at this early stage of his Arsenal career.

Reiss Nelson

While the Arsenal academy graduate did not do anything particularly wrong, he will have been hoping to make a bigger impact on his first start of the season, and just his second appearance.

Nelson struggled to match the directness or effectiveness of Saka on the other flank and when a shooting opportunity did present itself early in the second half, he sliced his effort and it nearly trickled out for a throw-in.

The 22-year-old is no spring chicken any more and really needs to start capitalising on the opportunities which Arteta hands him - especially as the Spaniard seems to be increasingly settled on a core squad of 14-or-so players.

Nelson's disappointing evening was capped by his 59th-minute substitution, with the in-form Gabriel Martinelli sent on in his place to help Arsenal restore some control.

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