Chris Sutton believes Bukayo Saka is the best right winger in the world this season, after Saka’s Player of the Match performance for England.
Bukayo Saka was England’s star man against Ukraine at the weekend, providing a sumptuous goal and assist in a 2-0 win over their European Championship qualification rivals.
The Arsenal winger has been impressive all campaign for the Gunners, he was one of Gareth Southgate’s best players at the World Cup, and Chris Sutton believes Saka is now proving he’s one of the best in the world at his role.
“Try to name a better right winger in the world this season than Bukayo Saka and I think you will struggle,” Sutton said.
“Saka is winning the battle on the right. Salah has not been the same footballing force for Liverpool this season. Mahrez is incredibly talented for Man City but I would rank Saka ahead of him.
“And I won’t be taking any suggestions of Antony seriously — the United man probably has Saka posters hanging on his bedroom wall!”
Sutton believes Saka could be even better in the future, and empathises with the Arsenal fans who wanted the youngster taken off earlier in Sunday’s fixture.
“Saka is only 21 and it is his decision-making that impresses me most,” Sutton went on. “He knows when to dribble and the ball stays glued to his foot. He knows when to lay it off to a team-mate and make a run.
“He is deceptively strong in duels and you can only wonder, when he has reached his physical peak, what a talent he will be.
“There is no limit to his potential and it is little wonder Arsenal fans were begging for him to be substituted after his goal and assist in yesterday’s win over Ukraine. They can’t imagine the title race without him.”
The good news on that front is that Saka made it through the 90 minutes without appearing to suffer an injury, and he now has six days between the England fixture and Arsenal’s next game.
Whilst Arsenal’s exit from the Europa League was obviously disappointing, that will also help with keeping the schedule relatively clear.
Arsenal’s next games have nice spacing between them, with fixtures on Saturday, Sunday, Sunday, Friday, Wednesday, and Saturday throughout April. Then just one game per weekend in May.
The Wednesday-Saturday scheduling of the Manchester City and Chelsea games is by far the worst period of the month. But other than that, there are at least five days between each pair of games. Plenty of time to rest.