Arsenal have made sure that the Premier League title race will go to the final day of the season.

Even Mikel Arteta can’t argue that Arsenal bottled the chance to become champions of England last season and helped Manchester City along the way to becoming Treble winners.

But role forward 12 months and Arsenal are proving that they are a completely different animal in this pulsating Premier League title race.

One key reason why the London club have taken that extra step forward is individual players still proving their worth, such as Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba.

Whilst the new boys, Kai Havertz and Declan Rice have also taken the team’s game to another level after arriving for big transfer fees in the summer.

That was proven when Arsenal secured a valuable 1-0 win at Manchester United on Sunday at Old Trafford.

This is a performance that shouldn’t surprise many because it has been the norm all season long.

Ian Wright spoke about how a player like Saka has ‘normalised’ being ‘very consistent’ in his play and how he is also a ‘very intelligent’ player, as he told Premier League Productions

After hitting 14 goals and 11 assists during the previous campaign, he now has 16 goals and 9 assists and is proving his ‘world-class’ credentials.

But whilst everyone talks about what Saka does going forward, Wright also wanted to mention the side of his game that goes ‘overlooked’.

“It’s something that is always overlooked when you look at his (defensive) numbers, not only the numbers he is putting up, in respect of goals and assists, but his defensive work, it’s overlooked and it’s something that is so important,” said Wright.

“Everybody in the Arsenal side has to do their bit. There is no fat on that team, in respect of work rate. When you look at his work rate going the other way, he is in the position, because he is a very intelligent player where he knows he is going to be able to help the team. He is down there (doing his defensive work) and ready.

“I think what has happened with Bukayo is that he has gone to such a level that people have seen the normalising of very, very consistent play. And the fact that he doesn’t miss too many games through injury.

“We are talking about somebody at 22 that has got to a level, even when he was playing left-back for England, he played left-back for England for a while. He could play in the midfield. He could play on the left side. Any of those positions he will play in, he will do a very, very good because he is such an intelligent player.”

Two Arsenal players were nominated for Premier League Player of the Year – Odegaard and Rice – but not Saka.

Saka has been among the more reliable performances this term, so many people are shocked by that.

Since joining Arsenal on a club record deal from West Ham United, Rice has arguably been the team’s finest player overall due of his dominance in that midfield.

Saka, though, deserved some kind of acknowledgment because, if all goes according to plan, he may win both the Premier League title this season and Euro 2024 with England.