For the third match in a row, Bukayo Saka was taken off early by Mikel Arteta as Arsenal beat Burnley 3-1 in a scrappy affair at the Emirates Stadium. Saka, often the beacon of light during games like this, helped his side to open the scoring before eventually earning himself an ounce of rest with the Gunners two goals to the good.

It comes at a time when the 22-year-old's fitness is one of the big stories every time Arsenal play, especially in recent weeks. Having completed 90 minutes in five of the opening six games he has now only done it twice in the last six, missing his first game in over 80 matches in the process.

On Wednesday night against Sevilla he was kept on the field despite taking a knock earlier on in the clash after once more being the centre of attention for opposition defenders. Saka still managed to get himself a goal and an assist, a credit to his mental and physical resilience but did enter the weekend as a doubt.

"We want out players to play for their club and national team," Arteta said ahead of the game afrer Gareth Southgate called up the attacker for England's latest international squad. "B [Saka] didn’t train yesterday [Thursday]. Let’s see if he can make it tomorrow."

As is often the case Saka did make the game and did start, breaking open the first-half with a neat header across the box to Leandro Trossard for the opening goal. He had come close to doing similarly earlier in the game with another back-post cross that caused confusion in the Burnley defence.

Ultimately Areta was eventually able to take Saka off as his side responded to Josh Brownhill's equalising goal well. William Saliba quickly put them back ahead and then Oleksandr Zinchenko created a buffer between the sides. Saka then went off with just under 10 minutes to play of regulation time.

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The job looked to be done at that stage but how Arsenal reacted to losing Saka, and Saka's own personal actions at the decision, might have differing impacts on Arteta. Firstly Saka looked frustrated at being hauled off, perhaps as he missed out on the chance to score his first league goal since September 30.

The England forward walked off slowly, shaking his head with Reiss Nelson replacing him. Most managers admire that sort of visual anger at not being able to contribute more though and it is certainly in keeping with the player's determination.

However, it is the lack of control his team had without Saka that will worry the boss. Just two minutes later Fabio Vieira was sent off for a needless and reckless challenge, leaving his side without their best player on the pitch, down to 10-men and willing on Vincent Kompany's visitors that had shown little since getting back into the game out of nowhere.

Arsenal did manage to hold out and keep their 3-1 victory intact but the pressure put on their goal for what ended up being nearly 20 minutes due to stoppage time, was totally avoidable. It's now a Catch-22 for Arteta as he looks to give Saka as much rest as possible with a challenging winter schedule to come but also the demand to stay in touch with the league leaders.

Against Sevilla, he saw the risk of keeping his star man on the field for too long and Burnley showed the flipside.