Saka’s evolution from shy boy to undisputed talisman
Is now a powerful, direct and deadly player who strikes fear into full-backs and is key to Arsenal top-four hopes
Unai Emery’s preferred response, when asked about Bukayo Saka, is to tell the story of the Arsenal winger’s Premier League debut. It came against Fulham, in January 2019, when Saka was brought on as a substitute in the 83rd minute. “He played the last eight to 10 minutes,” the former Arsenal head coach recalled last year. “And he did not touch the ball.”
Not a single touch, in 10 minutes of football. As Premier League debuts go, it was far from spectacular. Arsenal won 4-1, and there was no need for any contribution of note from the teenage winger with No87 on his back.
It is safe to say that times have changed for Saka and his club, so much so that it is hard to imagine Arsenal winning without him playing a significant role. The days in which he could go 10 minutes without touching the ball are long gone, for Arsenal now need him in possession, leading the way, as much as is humanly possible.
In the Premier League this season, Arsenal have started only two matches without Saka in their lineup. They lost both, against Brentford and Manchester United. They are simply a different side without their winger, this 20-year-old who has evolved from promising youngster into a versatile problem-solver and now their undisputed best player – all in just three seasons.
His importance to this team was underlined in Arsenal’s past two victories, against Chelsea and United. Saka scored penalties in both, his first spot kicks since missing the crucial effort for England in last summer’s European Championship final.
It was a measure of his confidence, which is now bordering on the sort of swagger that accompanies so many top players, that he responded so calmly to United’s attempts to disrupt him before his penalty. Scott Mctominay, the United midfielder, deliberately knocked the ball out of Saka’s hands while he waited to take the shot. Saka simply smiled at his opponent, picked up the ball and lashed it into the net.
So much has changed in Saka’s game that it is easy to forget he had played nine Premier League matches as a defender before he had ever been given an opportunity to start on the right wing, the position which he has since made his own. Of his first 30 league starts, only two came on the right of Arsenal’s attack.
Saka’s upward trajectory, and his evolution as a footballer, can be seen across the three seasons he has spent in Arsenal’s first team.
In the first, the 2019-20 campaign, he showed himself to be a left-sided creator with a knack for making the right decisions in the final third, registering 12 assists in 38 appearances. It was easy to see the quality of Saka’s footballing brain in those moments. Most young players, especially wingers, struggle to provide the end product to match their silky dribbling skills at this early age. Saka has done it the other way around – the end product came first, and the rest has come later.
But while Saka evidently had a mental maturity beyond his 18 years, there were moments when he lacked the required physical power. In Mikel Arteta’s first home game as manager, in December 2019, Arsenal conceded an 87th-minute winner to Chelsea after Willian had comfortably sprinted past Saka on a counter-attack. To watch the goal back now is to see a boy being outrun by a man. Saka, visibly shattered, cannot keep up.
Little more than two years later, the sheer thought of Willian outpacing Saka would be enough to provoke derisive laughter from fans across the country. Saka has beefed up and bulked out, playing with a speed and strength that Premier League full-backs are finding increasingly difficult to handle.
The Saka of 2022 is powerful, direct and deadly. This season is his best in terms of scoring, with 12 goals from 38 appearances, compared to seven in 46 in 2020-21 and four in 38 in 2019-20. Again, the trajectory is there for all to see.
It is no coincidence that Saka’s brilliant form has gone hand in hand with a consistency in his positioning. He is now almost exclusively a right winger, having played in that role in 26 of his 31 league starts this season. He knows the angles, the spaces, where his team-mates will be.
This stability is new for Saka, who spent much of his second season as the footballing equivalent of a quick-fix repair kit. His intelligence meant he could fill in wherever needed, and in his first two campaigns he played as a left-back, left winger, right winger, central midfielder and even a right wing-back.
“Having great versatility has made him a different player,” Arteta said in May last year. “We will mould him into the position we want him to play more and more.”
As that “moulding” process has continued at pace, Saka has become ever-more important to Arsenal’s hopes of finishing in the top four. With 12 goals and five assists, he has contributed to more goals than any other Arsenal player this season.
These on-pitch developments have inevitably gone hand-in-hand with an increase in Saka’s off-pitch profile. He is one of the faces of sports brand New Balance, he was on the red carpet of the Brit Awards and he recently appeared on the cover of British GQ Style. It all paints a picture of a young man who is rapidly becoming a global star, and there is no telling how far he might go.
“With the talent that he has, and with the people he has at the club who want to help and support him, time will tell what he can do in the game,” Arteta said this season. “But I think he could be something extraordinary.”
West Ham v Arsenal Tomorrow, 4.30pm, Sky Sports
and Marie-antoinette Katoto, since the original incident and one source described the atmosphere at training as being “as tense as it has ever been”. Another described last Saturday’s incident as a “brawl”.
Hamraoui’s representatives were contacted by Telegraph Sport for a response. The club said little regarding the bust-up except to confirm that “an incident between players occurred during the training session” but they have since suspended Hamraoui from training for seven days over her part in it. In contrast, Baltimore signed a contract extension to 2024 on Wednesday.
The saga has made even seasoned watchers of PSG – always one of European football’s more colourful institutions – catch their breath.
“The story almost looks like a Netflix series,” football writer David Opoczynski, who covers PSG for Le Parisien, said. “The tension between Hamraoui and the rest of the group, especially the best players, Diani and Katoto, has been growing and the altercation during training was inevitable. Katoto does not want to extend her contract in Paris if Hamraoui stays.
“The supporters have supported Diallo because they feel that her detention was unfair, and when Diallo went free, fans were angry at Hamraoui.”
This fury spilled over during a match for the PSG men’s team against Rennes, when ultras unfurled a banner reading: “Respect the women’s section! Aminata Diallo we support you, Hamraoui, who’s next?” The hashtag #Hamraouiout regularly features in replies to tweets by PSG’S official account.
“The Hamraoui affair rankled with supporters,” Soumya Roubache, a lifelong fan of PSG and a Paris native, said. “She went from being a beloved player to one that the supporters want to see leave.”
The fallout from the attack has spread far and wide, notably the exposing of an alleged affair between Hamraoui and Barcelona legend Eric Abidal, who promptly begged for forgiveness from his wife, Hayet, on social media. She has
filed for a divorce, while denying any suggestions of being involved in the attack on Hamraoui.
Despite all this, a club-record, sell-out crowd of 47,000 is expected at the Parc des Princes tonight to see if PSG can overturn a 3-2 deficit against Lyon. The sides are great rivals, but more often than not, PSG have been the bridesmaids. Lyon are top this season and beat PSG 6-1 just four days after Diallo’s surprise arrest sent the club into crisis.
“I have hope, I believe in my team,“Roubache continued. “There is a team strength and the record crowd shows people’s growing interest in women’s football.”
If PSG can get through to Turin, happier days may lie ahead for this team, but the Hamraoui case is not going away any time soon.
“Everything has become very strange,” Opoczynski said. “And we mustn’t forget that this affair has had an impact on the French team. It is thought Hamraoui will not be at the Euros in July because her [relationship] with Diani and Katoto has become impossible. And what is most incredible? We still don’t know who attacked Hamraoui.”
exciting prospect, and the team will be keen to set the record straight against Italy after the defeat in the final of the Euros. We’re absolutely delighted to have secured this deal with Uefa, and I’m sure England fans will be looking forward to the summer with great anticipation.”
England’s World Cup matches will be shown by other free-to-air broadcasters. It is understood that an independent firm is being commissioned by Channel 4 to lead on production, with presenters and pundits yet to be decided.
Moving all England matches to free-to-air is in contrast with the fate awaiting other home nations, who have previously announced deals with new Nordic streaming service Viaplay.
Viaplay will exclusively stream Scotland’s, Wales’s and Northern Ireland’s European qualifiers to the World Cup 2026, Euro 2028, Nations League 2024-25 and 202627 and international friendlies.
The value of the deal remains a fiercely kept secret between the broadcaster and governing bodies.
However, Julian Aquilina, a senior research analyst at Enders Analysis, said the new offering is in line with Channel 4’s strategy. “I’d also note that over the last few years Channel 4 has been increasing its share of the top commercial programmes with mass audiences,” he added.