Shaun Wright-Phillips noticed how the Leeds United players surrounded Bukayo Saka as soon as the Arsenal winger was brought into the action on Saturday at the Emirates.
The Arsenal 21-year-old started from the bench as Mikel Arteta’s side secured a 4-1 win over relegation-threatened Leeds United.
As soon as Bukayo Saka came onto the pitch, after the hour mark, he was in the thick of the action because he was the one who fed the ball to the unmarked Martin Odegaard, who supplied a delightful ball to the on-rushing Granit Xhaka to score Arsenal’s fourth goal of the game.
As soon as Saka picked the ball up on the flanks, he was surrounded by a number of Leeds players, but he kept his composure on the ball.
Rather than trying to beat every man around him, he just slipped the ball to Odegaard inside the midfield, and whilst it doesn’t register as an assist for the England man, it just proves how influential he can be to proceedings and to his side’s play.
That was touched upon by former title-winner Shaun Wright-Phillips, who also praised Gabriel Jesus after his first Premier League start since the World Cup, as he told Premier League Productions (01/04/23 at 5:20 pm).
“I think he (Jesus) has come back sharp,” said Wright-Phillips. “That’s a great ball in there. Trossard doesn’t even look, he just puts it into an area and Jesus sees that area, attacks it, and then slides it in.
“That’s what I think Saka brings when he is on the pitch, you see when Saka had the ball, there were about three or four Leeds players around him, which gives Odegaard the space to open his body, lift his head up (and assist Xhaka).”
SAKA FLYING
Over the international break, Saka produced the goods for England, especially after their win over Ukraine at Wembley – Leicester City’s James Maddison was full of praise for his fellow countryman.
But that performance was just a sign of what the Hale-End star has been doing this season because he has been one of the best players in the Premier League.
It might just be the case that Manchester City’s goal-crazy striker Erling Haaland takes the Player of the Season, but Saka also deserves to be in that conversation – although, one pundit claimed that neither should get the award, and instead, it should go to Martin Odegaard.
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