Daily Archives: June 9, 2022

Tribute to Bukayo Saka – Arsenal’s Player of the Season

For the second campaign in a row, Arsenal’s emerging talisman, Bukayo Saka, has won the Player of the Season award. This year, he edged past Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale, garnering 58% of the votes from the Arsenal faithful.

Since breaking into the first team setup in the 2019-20 season, Saka has been on an upward trajectory, playing consistent football and getting better with each passing campaign. As the young lad aged, he improved in maturity and most importantly, his growing influence within the team.

Season	Appearances	Goals	Assists	Goal Contributions
2019-20	38	4	8	12
2020-21	46	7	10	17
2021-22	43	12	7	19

From the table above, Saka’s goal contributions have continued to improve and significantly, his goals came in the Premier League, as Arsenal were unfortunate not to feature in Europe last season. It is more impressive when you think about how Saka began the campaign with a penalty miss that ended his country’s European Championship hopes. He was on the end of some vitriol and abuse from some football fans but he focused on his football with Arsenal and made himself indispensable to the side, keeping out the club’s record signing permanently out of the team.

I am proud of what Saka has achieved thus far in his fledging Arsenal career and with his age, there is so much more to come from him. With Alex Lacazette leaving this summer, penalties will be added to his repertoire, which would allow him score more vital goals like the spot kick he took against Chelsea in last season’s surge for a Champions League finish.

Arsenal will also need to show some level of commitment to Saka, by offering him a new deal to reflect his increased ability in the team, and with the forward having just two years left in his contract, as well as interest from other clubs, we wouldn’t want another saga in our hands, so its in everyone’s interest to tie him down to his best years with us.

The new season is around the corner and Arsenal would be looking to improve the squad, but its heartwarming to know that we have players like Saka that are more than capable of providing positive impact in every game he plays.