Is Saka's form becoming a worry for Arsenal?

By the time the Carabao Cup final whistle confirmed Arsenal’s 50th game of a relentless season, Bukayo Saka had already played 305 matches for his boyhood club. The 24-year-old wore the armband at Wembley, but the defeat to Manchester City sharpened a question that has been growing in volume among supporters and pundits alike: is the winger’s dip in output becoming a problem for Mikel Arteta’s side?

Saka has scored only twice since the turn of the year, across 17 appearances. His strike in the 2-2 draw with Wolves last month ended a 15-game drought in all competitions, and his Premier League return stands at six goals from 27 outings. Combined goals and assists in the league total nine—hardly the headline numbers expected of a player who signed a new five-year deal in February and is viewed inside the club as the irreplaceable face of the project.

England manager Thomas Tuchel, mindful of a looming World Cup, has given Saka the opening week of the international break off in an attempt to protect a player who has already logged 2,869 minutes this term—250 more than in the whole of last season. Should Arsenal reach the finals of both the FA Cup and Champions League, Saka could yet play 57 matches in 2024-25.

Wayne Rooney, speaking after the City loss, did not mince words. “I think he has struggled this season. He has played a lot of games in his career already. I think we all know there is more there.”

Arteta, however, has never hidden his expectation that elite talent must shoulder elite loads. In 2022 the Spaniard cited the world’s top players routinely playing 70-match campaigns “every three days” and insisted Saka must aspire to that threshold if he wants to sit at the sport’s summit.

Context offers mitigation. Expected-goals data indicates Saka is fractionally under-performing, deserving roughly one more goal and three additional assists. Opponents regularly deploy two or three defenders to smother his right-flank raids, while injuries to Martin Ødegaard (four separate issues, only 13 league starts) and Ben White have disrupted the fluid interchange that once freed Saka into space. Kai Havertz’s spells on the sidelines have also forced the winger to build chemistry with summer signing Viktor Gyokeres, a partnership that has yet to ignite.

Saka’s physical resilience has otherwise been a constant. A hamstring problem last season—his first major injury—sidelined him for 101 days, yet he scored on his return against Fulham and again at the Bernabéu in a Champions League quarter-final. This campaign a similar hamstring strain cost him four weeks, and a hip complaint in January meant three missed fixtures. Even so, he remains among the club’s most-used players for the sixth consecutive season.

Arsenal still sit commandingly in the Premier League, and remain alive in both the FA Cup and Champions League. Only four defeats in all competitions underlines the collective strength of Arteta’s squad, yet the reliance on Saka for inspiration is undeniable. When the winger’s spark fades, the team’s trophy ambitions flicker.

The next 15 potential fixtures will decide whether 2024-25 is remembered as the year Saka’s body buckled under the weight of expectation, or the campaign he carried Arsenal to long-awaited silverware—and then attempted the same for England on the world stage.