Arsenal: Let’s not forget about Bukayo Saka the winger

Arsenal are reaping the rewards of their fill-in leftback Bukayo Saka, but take care not to forget about this young man as a winger.

Arsenal have one hell of a talent in Bukayo Saka. The 18-year-old leads the team in assists across all competitions, he’s proven to be one of our deadliest attacking talents and the only concern about him is how we can keep him forever.

But in the process of fawning over him, take care not to forget who he truly is—he’s an attacker. He’s an attacker being used in a defensive role.

This may sound stupid, what I’m telling you to do, but bear with me. I know we’re all enjoying Bukayo Saka, and we’re all on board with the fact that he should be playing winger and not leftback, but that doesn’t take away from several things that I am seeing going on out there.

First of all, opposing fans spouting off about how their young talent is better than Saka. A. No he isn’t and B. That argument can’t be proven statistically until your young talent has to play a defensive role. Balls in your court, Mason Greenwood.

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Secondly, it doesn’t take speculation to see what he can do as a winger. He started at winger under Unai Emery when Alexandre Lacazette was out and guess what? He was tremendous. So much so that I was over here advocating for him to start over Pepe when Lacazette came back.

For all the good that Saka has done as a leftback—and there’s a lot of it—he’s amassed one goals and four assists in his seven starts in an attacking position.

It should go without saying that when you put him in an attacking facility, and swap his priorities from defend first, attack second to attack first, defend second, you will see even more production from him than what we are currently getting.

Which may seem hard to believe seeing as how he has a goal and four assists in his last five games. But there is more there, as we can see if we look back on how well he did in then mess that was Unai Emery’s reign. There’s so much more there.

The fact that Saka, as a leftback, is standing up to the other top talents out there playing in their primary positions is incredible. But take care to remember that he’s a winger, and his time will come.