How ‘exceptional’ Bukayo Saka is evolving to show Arsenal the way forward

Bukayo Saka continues to show the way, as well as new levels. Arsenal have recently been a team in need of a bit of stability and sense of comfort, and this 3-0 win over AS Monaco duly offered them a straight line into the Champions League last 16.

They have leapt to third in this expanded Champions League group stage with four wins from six, although that in a table where everyone down to eight has 13 points, ninth-place Borussia Dortmund have 12 and 19th-placed Club Brugge. have 10, with the top eight going through. A bit of nerve is going to be required to keep them there, which was why the manner of this victory was all the more important.

It’s also why Saka is being talked of as the kind of player who can put in Ballon D’Or levels in 2025. His two goals were enough here, as he also set up Kai Havertz’s diverted adornment, bringing the win and also some new confidence.

open image in gallery

Few will feel that like youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly, who played a pivotal role in Saka’s first from left-back. He’s another player who could be talked of in similar gushing terms in the future. There’s a player there, who spoke of Saka’s influence.

“Looking up to Bukayo, he has that mindset, he has everything,” the 18-year-old said. “I’ve learned a lot from him and I want to keep learning.”

Mikel Arteta was also learning more about Saka. “He keeps surprising us, and that’s what he wants to do,” Arteta said. With nine goals and 12 assists this season, Mohamed Salah is the only Premier League player with more goal involvements than Saka. “That's the quality that he has,” Arteta continued. “That's the ambition that he has and how he's preparing himself every day. It's very difficult to do what he's doing.

“What he's done in his first six years of professional football is exceptional. His aim is to improve. He has the players and the environment around him to continue to do that and I'm sure he will. He has developed in the right way, mentally, physically, his condition, and his preparation, and now he has got the habit to play every three days and he is consistently doing that at the highest level. He is a great example because how he behaves daily, and what he wants to do, which is to give his best version every day. He is very humble, a great guy to have around the place and an incredible talent. He's making the difference for us."

All of that has much more value than a mere 3-0 home win over as moderate a Ligue 1 side as Monaco might suggest. The atmosphere around Arsenal games has felt like it can drop into panic of late, due to a general agitation with the frustrations of the season. There is still belief in Arteta’s team and an awareness of their level, of course, but also concern at how the rigours of this campaign have stopped them showing that.

open image in gallery

It’s also why a victory like this had greater significance than just putting them in a strong position for automatic qualification. That prize has become utterly crucial in a campaign where Arsenal could well play 11 games in 35 days from 1 January. That’s what passage through to the Carabao Cup semi-finals will bring, and that’s why Arteta will absolutely want to avoid two extra European knock-out games.

His squad have faced enough injuries and physical issues this season. He needs them flying to have any chance of catching Liverpool.

That was another reason this win was more than just a superficially customary group-stage victory. Arsenal have been so stop-start this season that they are just striving to put a run together. Sunday’s 1-1 at Fulham stunted the emotion from three successive wins, and a needless home draw against Monaco would really have sapped momentum. That would only have been deepened by the awareness of greater consequences.

That was why the game for a while became distilled into the more individual psychodrama endured by Gabriel Jesus and his quest for goals. He didn’t get one here, but he should have. It was hard not to have some sympathy, especially given the typical commitment of his performance. Arteta gave him a chance to lead the line at number nine and he did that admirably in everything but the finishing.

open image in gallery

For Arsenal’s first chance of the game, Jesus timed a run superbly to leave himself one on one with Radoslaw Majecki. He looked to have got everything right with a smart finish, only for the goalkeeper to stick out a David De Gea-like leg and make the save. You could sense the anguish for him around the stadium, which isn’t a great place for a player to be in in terms of form. Jesus, for his part, keeps going. Those on Arsenal’s training ground speak highly of his willingness to work, and are also defensive of his scoring record given that he is now usually used sporadically.

The will could be witnessed in his second chance, which was entirely fashioned by his own hard work. Jesus got between the Monaco defence to turn them and create an opening, only for Majecki to this time get down well with his feet. More celebrated Arsenal stars were suffering the same issues, mind. Martin Odegaard put the ball wide in a one on one.

It perhaps points to a recent debate around Arsenal, and this perceived reliance on set-pieces. Arsenal were creating more than enough chances from open play, just as they did in the bountiful three games before the Fulham draw. It was just hard not to wonder whether the discussion from all that created an element of doubt.

There are no doubts with Saka, though. We are talking about a special player. That might sound a bit over the top from a first goal that was a tap-in and a second that was a chance after a rebound, but the point is that he was there. It is a consequence of the assertive way he plays, how he takes the game on, how he’s increasingly taking everything on his own terms. Even his assist for the third might have gone in had it not deflected off first Havertz’s and then Monaco captain Thilo Kehrer’s boot. It could have been a first Arsenal hat-trick, even if Saka insisted it will come.

“He got in the way of it,” Saka said about Havertz, laughing, “but don’t worry, it’s coming. It’s on the way.”

This didn’t become two draws, as it briefly threatened to do at the start of the second half. It is instead four wins in five, and a performance level and Champions League position that looks a lot healthier. Few look as good as Saka.