Bukayo Saka says Arsenal players are having to do one thing that they ‘never’ did last season
There has been a lot of change at Arsenal this season compared to the last campaign.
Bukayo Saka is still the Gunners’ best player and Mikel Arteta is still their manager, but there were eight new arrivals in the summer transfer window.
The likes of Martin Zubimendi and Eberechi Eze were major signings, but the big one was Viktor Gyokeres, the striker everyone had been waiting for.
Saka has now had his say on the Swedish forward.
Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Bukayo Saka says Arsenal ‘never’ played with a striker like Viktor Gyokeres last season
Arsenal signed Gyokeres from Sporting CP in July.
The Portuguese champions made negotiations extremely difficult for weeks. Sporting even tried to push Gyokeres to Manchester United behind Arsenal’s backs.
However, the striker only wanted the Gunners, and he has had a decent start to life at the Emirates.
The Swede has scored five goals in 13 appearances so far, which is not a bad return by any means, and his performances have been really impressive.
Bukayo Saka has now claimed that Gyokeres is settling in well, but at the same time, all the Arsenal players are having to adapt to how he plays too because they ‘never’ played with a striker like him last season.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Saka said: “Viktor’s playing really, really well. I think he settled in well into the group and into the team.
“I think, as a team, you know, we’ve never, not never, but last season we didn’t play with a striker like him. We played with Kai (Havertz), who is a different player to him.
“So yeah, it’s about us trying to adapt to his game a bit and try to help him create a few more chances, but at the same time, I feel like he’s getting more and more settled each game and he’s playing well.”
Viktor Gyokeres has made a major difference at Arsenal already
Saka is right; Gyokeres is a completely different striker to what Arsenal players have been used to.
The 27-year-old has shown the ability to drop deep and link up play, but he is also excellent at running in behind and dragging defenders with him.
That has had a real positive impact at Arsenal already, as the likes of Saka, Eze and the others behind him have found more space than they did last season.
Once teams start to tackle that problem, Gyokeres will get space himself, and that is when he’ll start scoring a lot more in the famous red and white.
