Arsenal: Just think what Bukayo Saka could do when freed

Bukayo Saka stacks up against Arsenal’s best goal scoring talents, and he’s doing the majority of it at fullback. What happens when he becomes a winger again?

When you line up Arsenal‘s top goal contributors, you see some pretty obvious names. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang tops the list. Gabriel Martinelli is just behind him. Then comes Nicolas Pepe. Lastly, not Alexandre Lacazette, as you might have guessed, but Bukayo Saka. The winger-turned-fullback.

Bukao Saka leads the team with seven assists in all competitions and, in a season where he’s been up against Pepe and Martinelli, he’s thrived. Not by competing directly against them, but by playing a position that neither would challenge him for.

Saka has been forced into fullback/wingback duties, and while that would seem like a near death sentence for a teenage sensation trying to establish himself as a winger, is has been anything but.

Saka has taken that opportunity for extended game time to chip in so much to this attack. He has three matches this year where he’s scored a goal and added an assist. Three times. No one else can say that.

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And he’s doing it all from a defensive role.

There have even been matches where Saka has been pinned back and forced to spend the majority of the 90 minutes playing defense and not getting forward at all. These aren’t the matches that we will as quickly remember, but they are matches that have shown how truly versatile and competent he is.

But it also makes me wonder what Saka would do when unleashed on a majority attacking role. If he’s not burdened with primarily defending, and can instead focus on primarily attacking, might we see even more goal/assist matches? Might we see an even more prolific talent than we are already seeing when he plays a defensive role?

We’ve seen it. When Lacazette was out injured, Saka and Nicolas Pepe were the dual wingers under Unai Emery and, lo and behold, Saka was tremendous. He was up to the task in every conceivable way and was only removed from the job because Gabriel Martinelli is impossible to get around, and a new regime came in and changed things up.

Even that might not have stood up to keeping Saka exiled from the attack if not for the leftback injury crisis.

Saka is making one hell of a statement on the defensive front, but that just makes me want to see him attack even more.