Bukayo Saka: The New Prince of Arsenal

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Saka is good, but as good as Grealish at villa.

Saka was The Light when Arsenal was horrendous

Bukayo Saka is one of the most talented players that England have ever produced. The guy literally started his career as a LB and now he’s an elite winger. At the age of 22, he has over 100 G/A for Arsenal, 3 consecutive seasons with 10+ goals in the premier league, back to back 10+ goals and 10+ assists seasons and even this season he has 20 goals and 14 assists in all competitions and 16 goals and 9 assists in the premier league. To be producing this at such a young age in the “toughest league in the world”. Despite that people don’t see him as a “world class player”. I think there’s some unfair misconceptions about Saka. Some people see him as a “bottler” because of the penalty he missed at the EUROs final in 2021 against Italy when England lost and is also labeled that due to the fact that Arsenal bottled the premier league title after spending all of last season in 1st place, he’s seen as a player who doesn’t show up in big games even though he had 4 goals and 4 assists in his first ever champions league season and has scored against the traditional big 6 teams in the premier league. You’re even hearing people say that he’s not good enough to start for England as on current form they think that Cole Palmer should start ahead of him on the RW and that Phil Foden is a much better player than him. He also gets mocked for always limping when he drops a disaster class and when Arsenal loses and the guy is probably the most fouled player in the premier league as defenders know that he’s a threat going forward.

He’s a victim of his high standards. We all forget that Saka is still only 22 and he has come a very long way in his career already. At first while playing in a struggling team he had to play out of position as a LB and even there he was cooking, and once he moved to RW, the rest is history because his numbers started to go up and you were starting to see the very best of him. Some of this can be down to him taking penalties, but the fact that at a young age he went from missing in a penalty shootout to regulatory taking penalties it’s saying something. Critics like to downplay a player’s performance by saying they’re a “penalty merchant” and they only score penalties, those are the same people who abused him for missing that penalty against Italy 3 years ago. He is Arsenal’s main man the face of this team and he has carried them for many years even when they weren’t good and while last season they didn’t win the league, nobody expected them to be in the title race and he was leading them. In the previous seasons he was more of an explosive winger who was more about taking on his fullback and cutting inside and while this season it’s true that he doesn’t do much special, he has the output and stats to back it up as that’s what you need as a winger. If any other player was producing the numbers that Saka was putting up, they’re a Ballon Dor contender, but Saka doesn’t get Ballon Dor shouts even though he will one day. He is elite and is playing at an unbelievable level right now, yet once again, he’s not world class. The term world class is subjective there’s no right or wrong answer on whether Saka is a world class player. As good of a season and if Arsenal wins the premier league, he’ll get his flowers and praise, but if they don’t win the league, then you’re gonna hear people pushing an agenda that he can’t be a world class player and he’s not an elite winger ignoring how good he has been in recent seasons and if you take Saka out of that team, realistically would Arsenal be competing for the premier league title in the last 2 seasons. That’s how good he is. He’s heading in that trajectory, he needs at least 2-3 more elite seasons of productivity and while at some point he has to start winning trophies at Arsenal, we have to appreciate the potential greatness of this guy. His lack of trophies is another thing that holds him back in the world class discussion. For those who say that Harry Kane can’t be world class because he hasn’t won anything, this is different because he’s been consistently excellent for years and while Saka is still young and I don’t think he’s a “one season wonder”, he’s had what 2-3 great seasons BTW and sometimes him not winning a lot overlooks his achievements. I honestly don’t know why people put way too much emphasis on team accolades when discussing individual talent, that’s the reality of modern football a player cannot truly be appreciated unless they’re winning trophies. In 4 seasons at Arsenal he’s only won the FA Cup and while on paper it counts as a trophy, the problem is that the FA Cup doesn’t have the same value or level of prestige as other trophies like the Premier League or the Champions League meaning that a certain section of Arsenal fans will only appreciate their team winning the cup. People won’t take him seriously unless he wins something significant as they’ll just see him as a guy who’s a bottler and that’s the narrative that’ll be pushed assuming Arsenal has another trophy less season. Saka isn’t even in his prime and with how he’s playing right now, he’ll be a world beater for the years to come.

Star boy

Ficking Yanks

Many of the young players in the prem who have stayed with their clubs for their whole careers thus far do not fully convince me that they will stay loyal to their clubs. Saka really gives off the vibe of Arsenal through and through however. Also on a deeper note Arsenal is one of the better left wing clubs in Europe which Saka seems to reflect.

Saka didn’t start his career at LB bro. He was a LW in academy annd under emery and only started LB cause of the system arteta played and personnel we had available.