Second only to Thierry Henry: Bukayo Saka reminds Arsenal fans of his quality against Lille

Arsenal are making the Champions League routine. The Gunners have now won 14 consecutive group stage or league phase matches, as well as winning all 12 at the Emirates under Mikel Arteta. Across these home wins, they have conceded just three goals, of which two were scored by Kairat.

Well, this theme continued on Tuesday night, this time swatting aside LOSC Lille 3-0 in North London. Fair to say, it was a low-key first half, in which the highlight was a row of seats near us collapsing off their hinges. Two stewards subsequently arriving on the scene, four DeWalt drills between them in hand, spending at least ten minutes bolting the seats back down. As we said, not a lot going on on the pitch!

After the break, the Gunners scored thrice in six minutes to cruise away from Lille. Jurriën Timber opening the floodgates with an impudent spin and dink over Berke Özer, Eberechi Eze lashed home a second straight away, before the three substitutes combined. Martin Ødegaard played the ball to Kai Havertz, who teed up Bukayo Saka to make the points secure.

Well, this was a landmark goal for Saka, as it was his 19th in UEFA competition for Arsenal, propelling him up to second on Arsenal's all-time list of European goal scorers.

Arsenal's all-time leading scorers in European competitions

Note: Statistics courtesy of Harvey Downes; goals in qualifiers are not counted.

Worth stating up front, Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud, who received a warm welcome back to North London when he came off the bench for les Dogues, all scored goals in Champions League play-off ties. However, these have not been included in the data.

Thus, in major European competitions, only Thierry Henry has scored more goals in Arsenal colours than Bukayo Saka. For any club, only 12 men have more Champions League goals to their name than the Frenchman, a list of true greats, and Henry's Arsenal record may never be broken.

However, Saka's strike on Tuesday did see him overtake van Persie and Walcott, with this his 14th in the Champions League, coming in only his 31st appearance in the competition. The 25 year old has been criticised for his performances this season, especially following Saturday's win over Leeds, having also missed a gilt-edged opportunity against Napoli last month.

However, Saka has already scored four goals this season, most-notably bagging the only goal of the night at Villa Park.

Thus, perhaps unfairly, he is held to a higher standard than his team mates, leading to some over the top criticism. Nevertheless, in a match in which he was left on the bench from the start, Saka offered an instantaneous reminder of how he exponentially elevates this team whenever he's on the pitch.

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