Arsenal: 3 wildcards that could determine the fate of the season

2. Bukayo Saka

Bukayo Saka has done a really interesting thing. In becoming so steady at leftback, he has lured us into a false sense of what he can do. Let me explain: We’ve gotten so used to his defensive presence, that we may have lost track of what he can do when allowed to funnel all his efforts into the attack.

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With the pending returns of Kolasinac and Tierney and the signing of Cedric Soares, Saka is now freed up to either start in the attack or be that high octane substitute that we just haven’t had.

If anything, Mikel Arteta’s substitute decision-making has left me wanting more. But adding Saka, a youngster, to his Arsenal strikes me as the exact addition Arteta needs to make higher impact replacements late on in matches.

Saka was a regular starter for a spell under Unai Emery and he proved a big time game changer. There’s no reason to think he can’t do that again. Which would give us Gabriel Martinelli, Nicolas Pepe and Bukayo Saka, all interchanging at three spots.

Meaning that one of those guys will be a sub in any given match. That changes things. That changes things big time.

Finally, someone who I would have never pegged as our biggest wildcard.