Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka at serious risk every week

Everything has extra significance when it relates to your football club. When refereeing decisions go against Arsenal it’s because there is an agenda. When the fixture list is unkind it’s always biased against Arsenal

As supporters you are naturally more protective of that which you hold dear. In this current Arsenal team there is one player who we cherish unreservedly and, unlike the mention of an agenda, there is a very real problem emerging that needs to be addressed.

Bukayo Saka is finding himself at serious risk every single week. Against Aston Villa he became so fatigued from being rotationally fouled every few minutes that he had to be withdrawn with over 20 minutes remaining.

This young man has a career that can be anything he wants it to be. He’s an exceptional talent with the world at his feet. But you worry for his long-term health.

Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka at serious risk every week with endless crunching fouls heightening the probability of career threatening injuries

His ankles are being hacked to pieces every game. The opposition target him. They know his lightening quick feet can bypass any defender, and slowing him down with whatever prehistoric means boosts their own chances of success. Quieten Saka and you quieten Arsenal.

But it is getting out of hand. By far the most fouled player in the squad this season (58), the lasting effects of continuous chopping at his legs will have implications further down the line. For now he’s young and malleable, but the repetition of the tackles he’s facing, those where there is almost never punishment administered, will take its toll.

Having seen Abou Diaby, Eduardo and Aaron Ramsey leave the field of play in away matches with an oxygen mask strapped to their face, of course as Arsenal fans this issue is taken more seriously.

Hearing Steven Gerrard almost arrogantly claim that he has “screws in his hips” so therefore Saka needs to toughen up is so inexplicably dense. The answer you’re looking for is right there in your body. If anything, he’s one of the lucky ones since he managed a long and successful career at the highest level. Diaby didn’t. Eduardo didn’t. And Ramsey is still plagued by injuries now.

Saka shouldn’t be given preferential treatment just because he’s one of the rising stars in English football. He should be given more protection because he’s a young Premier League footballer who, for the sake of the sport, it would best seeing play for as long as the ability is there. Players are able to smash into him without consequence at an alarming rate.

Being booed by the Villa supporters paints him out as the culprit. Blatant tactics are being employed to get at him with force because these methods are allowed to carry on unpunished. Hopefully Saka speaking out about the situation when asked post-match will solve something, no matter how unlikely that may be.

The governing bodies have a duty to ensure this young men can enjoy fruitful careers for as long as their bodies allow them to. Letting 1990’s style techniques run the risk of heavily reducing, or at least limiting, an already short career span is borderline malpractice.

We want to see the sport prosper with the best players in the game front and centre of it. And that, without question, means they need greater protection.