Arsenal: Bukayo Saka vs Gabriel Martinelli is just silly

Arsenal have two of the most talented young players in the world, and it’s silly to think about how much of an embarrassment of riches this truly is.

Arsenal‘s youth development end product hasn’t been this good for a long time. Up the pipe come guys like Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson and best of all, Bukayo Saka. Adding Gabriel Martinelli to that mix was pure absurdity.

Nowadays, Martinelli and Saka are both at a Premier League level—Saka doing it all while being played out of position, nonetheless—and the question really has become which one will dazzle more spectacularly, if not both.

Bukayo Saka absolutely ripped up Newcastle United the goal he assisted on was pure technical genius as he skirted through not one, but two Newcastle defenders before picking out an easy pass to get the assist.

But it wasn’t out of the ordinary. That’s just what Saka has done and will continue to do. Somehow, as a leftback, he is still managing to attack like he’s a winger.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Sure, he has Granit Xhaka to thank for covering for him, but that’s besides the point. Whatever it takes to get Saka forward and involved in the attack has to take precedence over anything else.

Ahead of Saka, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang kept Gabriel Martinelli out of the starting XI, but Martinelli has been a match for Saka in every conceivable way. Martinelli is hanging out with the likes of Nicolas Pepe and Aubameyang for the honor of top goal producer on the club and Saka leads the team in assists across all competitions.

Have I mentioned that these kids are each just 18-years-old? Yet their technical proficiency is ridiculous, their maturity on the ball to die for and their final product is what you’d expect from someone nearing their prime.

And they are both locked in at this club, and they are both being given every opportunity to thrive at this club, and they are both going to be lifting each other and competing against each other for the foreseeable future, and the prospect of these two pitted against each other is just silliness. It’s so much talent.

That’s all I wanted to do here. I wanted to draw attention to how incredible these two young men are and how it’s incredible that Martinelli wasn’t even missed against Newcastle because Saka is so good, and it would have been the same the other way around. What happens when you get them both in the same starting XI?