Saka on Odegaard: 'He’s a fantastic leader’

Bukayo Saka was all smiles after a hugely satisfying and hard-fought win at St James’ Park.

The winger was involved in the thick of the action throughout the afternoon, as we closed the gap on Manchester City at the top of the table, with three games left to play.

And he had special words of praise for his captain Martin Odegaard, who fired us ahead with a superbly taken strike from 25 yards – his third goal this week and 15th of a remarkable campaign.

“He’s a fantastic leader, he has been all season,” Bukayo said. “He’s been leading by example, on and off the pitch. Hopefully he can continue this form.

“We needed that goal because we were under pressure early on. The first few chances definitely went their way and they had a penalty shout too. After that we scored a fantastic goal, from then we controlled the game.

“It was a really high-intensity game,” he added. “We really gave everything from minute one to 96, because we needed to. Newcastle are in great form, especially here at home, so I’m really proud that we came here and won."

He also said that the result showed how much we have developed over the past 12 months. This time last year we suffered a 2-0 defeat at Newcastle, that all but ended our hopes of Champions League qualification.

“Last year we were challenging for something different,” he said. “It was the Champions League while obviously this year we’ve already qualified, so we can say we’ve progressed as a team.”