Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is confident Bukayo Saka can play a decisive role as the club look to end their 20-year wait for a fourth Premier League title.
The Gunners are in a strong position after 30 games, trailing leaders Liverpool by just two points with a superior goal difference, although they do still need to face London rivals Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, as well as taking a trip up north to face Manchester United.
A 2-0 win over Luton Town in midweek kept up the pressure on Liverpool, who overcame Sheffield United 3-1 at Anfield, but Arsenal were without top scorer Bukayo Saka at the Emirates Stadium – the 22-year-old afforded a rest after recent injury niggles.
There’s no doubt in Arteta’s mind though that Saka will have a big role to play between now and the end of the season, with the Spaniard’s positivity radiating in his latest news conference.
“I’m super positive. I think he’s going to fly and be so decisive,” Arteta replied when asked if there was a danger of burnout for Saka.
On his ability to recover from injury quickly, he continued: “I think because he’s so strong, how much he wants it when you talk to him and how excited he is about what is coming.
“He wants to be there and he’s getting better and better. It’s normal, you have little niggles, you have kicks. He’s gone through a lot of that in the last two or three years and look at the way he’s performing.”
Saka has scored 13 of Arsenal‘s 72 Premier League goals, adding a further three in the Champions League – a competition the Gunners hope to reach the last four in providing they can navigate a two-legged tie with Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich.
That goal tally is five better than Arsenal’s next highest scorer, Kai Havertz, and six better than Leandro Trossard and Martin Odegaard, the latter of whom is well down on the 15 Premier League goals he scored last season despite playing well.
On Havertz’s impact in his first season in north London, Arteta remarked: “He’s got incredible qualities, to occupy spaces in different ways, to thread the ball, to link up play and to give you that lay out as well.
“Not only that but I think defensively his contribution is outstanding. For the team, the effort that he puts and his high press especially. But he’s got more to come. He needs to improve those numbers and I’m sure he’ll try to do it.
“I don’t think so [whether he’s hit his best form yet] at his age. He just started with us. In the first season he’s building those relationships. We moved him in different positions and he’s that good that he could be better.”
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