Bukayo Saka says he doesn’t care what people think of last season’s performance away to Manchester City, and they’re going to the Etihad Stadium this weekend to win.
Speaking to the media ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Manchester City this weekend, Bukayo Saka addressed questions about the way the Gunners played in last season’s edition of the same fixture.
Mikel Arteta’s side came away from that match with a 0-0 draw, and there have been some suggestions they should have been more proactive in going for the win.
But Saka says that’s what they did, and that’s what they’ll be doing again this time around.
“We will be going there to win, that is our focus,” Saka said. “To be honest, I don’t really care [about the criticism of last season’s performance]. We know what we believed, we know what we went there to achieve.
“Only we know the real truth. We went there to win and we are going to do that again this Sunday.”
It’s not as though we haven’t seen Arsenal turning up at a ground with an approach similar to the one they employed at the Etihad Stadium last season and leaving with all three points.
You could argue that’s exactly what happened away to Tottenham Hotspur last week, with Ange Postecoglou’s team having a lot more of the ball but Arsenal proving the only side capable of scoring a goal.
The Gunners had a big chance late in the City game too, they just couldn’t take it on that occasion. And they did take it in the reverse fixture, with Gabriel Martinelli converting and Arsenal getting the win.
The criticism of Arsenal’s performance against City ultimately feels like revisionism. Before the game, no one was saying that the Gunners desperately needed to go to the Etihad all guns blazing and play open attacking football.
The team had a formula to earn victory that had worked on multiple occasions before and has worked since. It just didn’t come off that time. With any luck, it will this Sunday.