Mikel Arteta has admitted that Bukayo Saka again had ‘some difficulties’ in the new role that he ‘demanded’ he play for Arsenal last night.
Arteta’s side were held to a 1-1 draw by Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium.
In truth, Arsenal could and should have been out of sight by the half-time break, but the Gunners missed a number of great chances in the opening 45 minutes.
Saka, who started on the right-hand side of attack, missed a couple of great opportunities himself.
Arteta took him off on 77 minutes after a pretty ineffective second-half display, but the Spaniard says that he still saw some good things from the 18-year-old – who set up Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s opener – despite the change of position.
He told Arsenal’s official website: “He’s learning a different role from the one that I demanded him to play again today and in some moments he had some difficulties, but he also read some situations really, really well and he was a threat.”
This is the second time in a few days that Saka has played on the right and it remains to be seen how long Arteta continues with this experiment.
And in fairness, it’s been a successful stint – one assist last night and a goal against Wolves last weekend – but his overall standard of performance seems to have dipped and it’ll be interesting to see where he plays against Manchester City in an FA Cup semi-final in 10 days.
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