Arsenal legend Ian Wright has showered Bukayo Saka with praise after an exceptional start to the campaign but admits he is ‘worried’ about the sheer amount of matches the forward plays.
Saka has flown out of the traps this season, notching up two goals and seven assists with Arsenal sitting third in the Premier League table.
After scoring and setting up both Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli in Arsenal’s recent comeback victory over Southampton, Saka stands alone as the top assist-maker in Europe’s top five leagues.
The 23-year-old attacker also got on the scoresheet in the Gunners’ 2-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and will no doubt be looking to carry his eye-catching form into the international break with England.
Ex-Arsenal striker Wright continues to be wowed by Saka’s performances and is ‘not fussed’ about the constant comparisons to rival players, with Ally McCoist the latest figure to reject claims the winger is ‘world-class’.
But with games coming thick and fast for Saka, Wright does have concerns surrounding the workload the Arsenal man is taking on at relatively young age.
‘He’s constantly being compared to different players and what they’re doing but his consistency since he’s been in the team has been amazing,’ Wright said on Optus Sport’s The Kelly & Wrighty show.
‘At the moment, out of the top five leagues, he’s got the most assists and people do ask about how good he is.
‘But I’m not really fussed in that respect because, on a regular basis, from the time he’s been in there, and remember he’s only 23, he’s still delivering top performances with creation, defensive work and everything he does for the team.
‘One thing we all worry about at Arsenal is the amount of games he plays and hopefully he doesn’t break down but when you look at him, he’s doing everything that we all expect him to do and that’s why, maybe, it’s underrated.’
Wright added: ‘What’s next for him is to obviously try and finish off the season and win titles for Arsenal, win Champions Leagues, win medals for England.
‘What we’re seeing in respects of the way he plays… we know he’s got a signature move where he goes on the outside and cuts inside and curls it in, but people can’t stop that. He’ll cut inside and play one-twos and people can’t stop it.
‘The main thing for him is to keep working on the good things that he does and then obviously he’s added goals to his game, he’s added that defensive aspect because Arsenal are trying to be a bit more defensive and hold onto what they’ve got to a certain extent.
‘But for him, every aspect of what he’s asked to do, he does it and he does it well.’
Wright voiced his frustrations surrounding the ‘world-class’ debate that seems to follow Saka around, branding it a ‘clickbait kind of conversation’.
‘That’s the problem [with the ‘world-class’ debate]. When you watch the World Cup that’s what you see. You see world-class players, [Zinedine] Zidane, Kaka and all of those players and they’ve won the World Cup,’ he argued.
‘It’s the way that people are throwing this about, “He’s not world-class, he’s not world-class”.
‘It’s just a clickbait kind of conversation. It’s so annoying.’
Arsenal were forced to dig deep to beat Southampton last weekend and Wright believes the Gunners will need to draw upon that same fighting spirit if they are to keep pace with Manchester City and Liverpool this season.
‘It’s a situation where Arsenal know exactly what they need to do this season, they’ve done it for the last couple of seasons,’ he went on.
‘The first season was one where they tested it out and they were very happy that could compete. Last season, very disappointed they didn’t finish it off when they played so well to get to where they got to.
‘This season, they’ve started knowing they’re not giving anything in respects of margins, they know what it takes. The second half of last season was 19 games, 16 wins, one draw and one loss against Villa and it was enough for them to not win the league.
‘As poorly as they played against Southampton and they’re trying to get it done at the moment, especially without someone like Martin Odegaard, but Southampton came and made it very difficult, like everybody is going to do, and they overcame it and them and that’s what you’ve got to do at this stage.’
