Unai Emery played down his role in Bukayo Saka’s development ahead of Arsenal’s clash with Aston Villa, praising the Gunners’ academy and Saka himself.

Though he’s played the majority of his football under Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka first broke into the Arsenal team under former Gunners boss Unai Emery – now of Aston Villa.

Emery gave Saka his debut in the Europa League, then the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the League Cup.

Ahead of Arsenal’s match against Aston Villa on Saturday, Emery was asked about what he saw in Saka at that early stage.

“Arsenal always have very good players in their academy and us coaches have a responsibility,” Emery said.

“Saka was one very good example. His development was because he had very good coaches. They helped him a lot and now with Arteta he is developing a lot.

“He is a very good player and as a man who he is, he is very humble and as a player I am very happy for him.”

It’s typical of Emery not to overplay his role in Saka’s development, instead giving praise to pretty much anything else, whether that’s Arsenal, the academy, Arteta, or Saka himself.

In fairness, it’s true that Saka’s role under Emery was relatively minor.

The youngster only made 15 appearances for the ex-Gunners head coach, not even hitting double figures for starts.

Saka was also playing a very different role back then, not making a single appearance on the right-hand side.

It was Arteta who shifted him over to the right-wing, and it was Arteta who played him 180 times in his first 202 Arsenal games as manager.

Saka also had to be patient under Emery, as he starred consistently for Freddie Ljungberg’s u23 side but was largely ignored throughout the run-in of Emery’s first season.

Who knows how things might have been different if Emery had trusted Saka a little earlier? Instead, he continued to rely on Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi as Arsenal faltered in the top-four race and at the final hurdle of the Europa League.

But having said that, sometimes that first step from the academy to the first team is the hardest to make, and Emery deserves his share of the credit for making sure Saka got it.