Morning all.
A quick Saturday round-up for you, starting with the news that dropped yesterday via David Ornstein that Bukayo Saka has agreed a new long-term deal with the club. It’s obvious to say that’s fantastic, he’s basically last contractual issue we have to deal with for a while, and tying him down to a new contract is great news.
I think it’s probably fair to say that this season he hasn’t quite produced at the level we know he’s capable of. He did have that spell out with an injury at the start of the campaign, and since then has scored 7 goals and provided 6 assists in 27 appearances in all competitions. I think we could probably award him a composite assist of merit for the way his dangerous deliveries caused two own goals in the Wolves win, but I know it doesn’t work like that.
I think it will come though, and I hope that in the second half of the season we can see those numbers jump up. He certainly has the ability, and much like many of the best players in his position, there’s still a lot of output if not quite the end product. No Arsenal player takes more shots than him (45, next best is Trossard on 30), and no Arsenal player has more shots on target. Also, no Arsenal player has more shot creating actions than him this season in the league (79 overall, with the next best Declan Rice on 62 then Martin Odegaard on 54), and when it comes to shot creating actions per 90, only the captain (5.56) is better than his 5, of players who have played a meaningful number of minutes.
Which is to say I think there’s more to come from him, and there’s room to improve, which is something we spoke about yesterday on the Arsecast Extra. Leaving aside opinions on individual players, it seems clear to me that this is an Arsenal team that can do better in the final third. We don’t have a player in double figures for goals yet, and while that might speak to a solid level of collective output, we’re gonna need someone to catch fire a bit in front of goal to give ourselves the best chance of winning this title. Maybe not just one player either, and for me Saka is a prime candidate for that.
I get worries about how the big injury last year might have impacted him, and concerns about whether or not he’s lost a step, but in the first half against Liverpool that certainly didn’t seem to be an issue as he roasted his full back more than once. In the second half, he faded, but I think that was as much down to the overall performance level dropping as much as anything else. For me, he remains a key figure in this Arsenal team, with a consistency that few others reach, and going back to my earlier point, it’s point of significant encouragement for me that we sit 6 points clear at the top of the table knowing that collectively and individually we can do better.
So far in his Arsenal career, Saka has scored 77 goals and provided 77 assists. He’s still only 24 and I fully expect those totals to hit triple digits before too long. We also have a real alternative to him for now, in the shape of Noni Madueke, and while that might have some impact on the number of minutes he plays, we need to look at that as a positive thing. A fresher, less burdened Bukayo Saka should be a more productive Bukayo Saka, and hopefully that plays out between now and May (and beyond, obviously!).
Finishing up today with a bit of bad news though, it looks as if Piero Hincapie has picked up a hamstring strain which will keep him out for a while. As yet, we don’t know for quite how long, but with Riccardo Calafiori also sidelined, it’s likely to mean a chance for Myles Lewis-Skelly to play more regularly. It was about this time last season when he began to feature more often in the first team, and we saw on Thursday there’s some rustiness to his game – probably because he hasn’t been playing as much.
But these are the moments Mikel Arteta has spoken about so often this season. Everyone needs to be focused and ready, because you don’t know when you’re going to be needed. Myles is absolutely needed now, so let’s hope he can rise to that challenge, until such time as we can bolster the defensive ranks with the likes of Calafiori and Cristhian Mosquera not too far away.
Right, I’ll leave it there. The Arsecast Extra is below if you haven’t listened yet, and we’ll have a short FA Cup preview podcast on Patreon a bit later this morning. For now, have a great Saturday folks.
