LONDON -- The "Starboy" is back on center stage. Arsenal have needed a spark to revitalize their attack as the pressure of turning points into prizes grows exponentially, and Bukayo Saka was there to answer the call against Fulham on Saturday.
Saka's scintillating link-up with Viktor Gyökeres was at the heart of a 3-0 win that broke the mold of recent weeks, arguably months in home fixtures. Gone was the perpetual existential angst and the accompanying caution, replaced instead by pace, purpose and precision.
Fulham, who arrived at Emirates Stadium chasing their highest-ever Premier League finish, simply had no answer to Arsenal's renewed dynamism. Manager Marco Silva confirmed post-match that the squad had been battling a virus all week, which could explain their inability to keep up with a renewed Gunners attack.
It could have been another nervous 90 minutes for manager Mikel Arteta & Co, but Saka got the job done in half the time. On his first start since the Carabao Cup Final due to a persistent Achilles issue, the 24-year-old followed a brilliant assist for Gyokeres' ninth-minute opener -- dumping Raúl Jiménez on the turf with a change of pace -- with a superb 40th-minute strike of his own, arrowed inside Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno's near post and by the time Gyokeres headed in a third in first-half stoppage time, Mikel Arteta had seen enough.
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Goal difference may become a factor in the title race -- they now boast a six-point and four-goal advantage over City, who have two games in hand -- but more immediate in view is Tuesday's Champions League semifinal, second leg against Atletico Madrid. As a result, Saka was replaced at the interval by Noni Madueke.
It is no exaggeration to say that that opening half was right up there with Arsenal's best football of the season.
"It certainly was one of the best, and there was a certain connection in the team that I had a feeling that it was going to provoke that," said Mikel Arteta after the match. "We had some fresh legs from a few players, you could notice that big time, because the individual performance increased, and then the team flowed in a different way."
Maybe they do hate April after all -- a month in which their win percentage habitually dips -- and on the second day of May, they scored three goals in a single game for the first time since February. Only Bournemouth against Chelsea in December (2.77) and Manchester City against Leeds in November (2.67) registered a higher non-penalty expected goals figure in the first half of a Premier League game than Arsenal's 2.39 here. Their pass accuracy into the final third (87%) was Arsenal's best in a first half this season, their 70% pass completion of long passes their second best (per ESPN Global Soccer Research).