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Aston Villa 0-1 Arsenal: Bukayo Saka fires in from outside the box to give impressive Gunners another three points in the race for the top four... as Mikel Arteta's side bounce back from Liverpool defeat to strengthen grip on Champions League qualificatio

Bukayo Saka secured Arsenal's fifth consecutive away win to give Arsenal's Champions League hopes a huge boost at a windy Villa Park.

Saka shot through a crowd of players to take his season's goal tally into double figures and leave Mikel Arteta's side four points clear of closest challengers Manchester United in the race for fourth.

In contrast, Villa were disappointing in testing conditions and failed to trouble Gunners stand-in goalkeeper Bernd Leno until injury time despite the German making his first Premier League appearance since August.

Bukayo Saka scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal beat Aston Villa 1-0 on Saturday
Arsenal's Saka (centre) made the breakthrough after half an hour, firing past Emi Martinez
The 20-year-old star then tried to attempt a cartwheel in celebration but ended up on his back

Arsenal took to the field without regular No 1 Aaron Ramsdale (hip injury) and Gabriel Martinelli (illness) but it didn't stop them showing the initiative as Villa started cautiously with Danny Ings on the bench, leaving Ollie Watkins as a lone striker.