Even despite Arsenal’s injury crisis, it was still a major eye-opener to see Freddie Ljungberg throw Bukayo Saka into the deep end at left-back on Saturday afternoon. The Swede could perhaps have reshuffled things amongst his back-line, potentially switching Ainsley Maitland-Niles over and moving Calum Chambers to right-back.
Instead, the Gunners’ interim head coach showed his faith in the teenager by putting him into the team in a position that he has played just twice before in his career. And when coming up against Everton right-back Djibril Sidibe in one-on-one battles, it did paint a startling picture in terms of the size mis-match between the pairing. But rather than simply hiding away, Saka stepped up to be counted, and in doing so, made a huge statement to the new Arsenal manager who was sitting in the stands, Mikel Arteta.
The 18-year-old has already played 14 times across all competitions for the senior side this season, so the nerves of actually being in the team may have been less pronounced. But playing in an unfamiliar position, away at Goodison Park would have been a tall order for a player of any age. But the teenage starlet more than handled his own, particularly in the physical contests.
As per Sofascore, he won six of his 11 total duels, made a team-high four tackles, and made one clearance, interception and blocked shot each. In trying circumstances, Saka equipped himself well. At his press conference unveiling, Arteta made it abundantly clear that he wanted people to take “responsibility”, and didn’t want people “hiding”.
It would have been so easy for Saka to be completely overwhelmed by the situation on Saturday afternoon, and simply gone into his shell, knowing that he wasn’t going to get the chance to be an attacking force. Instead, he got his head down for the good of the team, and arguably came out of the game with the most amount of credit. He set an example to the rest of his teammates about working hard and fighting for the cause, and it’s something Arteta no doubt would have appreciated.
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Even if his long-term future isn’t at left-back, Saka has made it incredibly hard for the new manager to leave out, simply by doing what the Spaniard made clear the team needed doing.
Meanwhile, Arsenal have been told to cash in on this sulking star by Tony Cascarino.