Arsenal: Don’t worry, Bukayo Saka is a midfielder now too

Arsenal already has a midfield crisis, but as it’s been with every crisis, we have no need to worry as long as Bukayo Saka is alive and well.

Arsenal rolled out some pretty significant changes against Brighton, with Mikel Arteta rotating out some likely weary legs, as well as the obviously injured legs. Most notable, Granit Xhaka obviously couldn’t play, and that left a bit of a conundrum in the midfield for the Gunners.

Only there’s pretty much never a conundrum in the Arsenal squad as long as Bukayo Saka is available. Now, he’s a midfielder too, in addition to being a leftback, wingback, and winger.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Sead Kolasinac and Kieran Tierney were both injured, leaving Arteta scrambling to fill the leftback role. He turned to Saka, and the worry became that Saka was so good at leftback that he’d end up shoehorned into that role despite wanting to be a winger.

But he got moved again against Brighton, and this time he was playing in a more midfield role, skewing centrally in the early going and slipping out wide when the situation allowed.

When he was playing centrally though, he showed that playing a midfield role—even a central midfield role—was definitely in his wheelhouse. Just like everything else is apparently in his wheelhouse too.

He did a great job cutting through the Brighton midfield, putting himself in a good position to be a threat to the goal and it nearly paid early dividends with a smashed effort off the crossbar in the 9th minute. He continued to pester their defense and ended up getting rewarded for it when he provided the pass that gave way to Nicolas Pepe‘s goal.

I don’t know how many ways I can gush over how remarkable this young man is. No matter where you put him, he thrives. It’s not like he’s just patching a gaping wound either. He’s literally thriving. If he’s not careful, he may end up in goal next.

Seriously though, Mikel Arteta is doing everything right for Saka. He’s keeping him in attacking roles while still letting his flexibility fill the gaps in the team as needed. And as long as he keeps doing that, giving Saka the right kind of playing time, then a contract has to be coming soon, right?

Whatever the case, the kid is special, and no matter what position he plays next, I’m looking forward to it.