Gabriel Martinelli sends Arsenal fourth despite Watford fightback

Life feels sweet for Arsenal and they showed it in overcoming a spirited Watford. Their three goals were all dazzlingly taken and conceived – even if Cucho Hernández’s spectacular early equaliser was the game’s standout moment – and moved them into the top four with games in hand over most of those around them.

Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli would grace the Champions League; they all scored to make the prospect ever likelier and, while Moussa Sissoko introduced a fresh element of doubt by squeezing in a late effort for Watford, Roy Hodgson watched a chance to make up ground on the rest of the relegation pack slip away.

Ødegaard’s fifth-minute opener was the fruit of a stunning escalation in speed and control. The route to goal looked complicated when Saka picked up Ben White’s pass near the right touchline, but a sharp exchange of passes with the Norwegian sent him into space. As Saka assessed his options, Ødegaard had kept running into the box; he took the resulting cutback and, keeping his cool under pressure from Sissoko, found the bottom corner with precision.

By that point Watford could already reflect that, had Emmanuel Dennis held his run onto João Pedro’s through ball a fraction longer, they would have been ahead after 16 seconds. That became a distant memory when Hernández scored as perfectly executed an overhead kick as one might ever see.

Arsenal had looked ready to turn the screw but, after Sissoko did well to hold onto possession, Kiko Femenía was sent to the byline. His chipped cross was met near the penalty spot by Hernández, who provided a textbook demonstration of contortion power with an acrobatic finish that gave Aaron Ramsdale no prospect of intervening.

Only 11 minutes had been