‘Irreplaceable’ Arsenal player is on course for his best scoring season so far
Bukayo Saka has three Premier League goals from Arsenal’s opening four games.
That’s his best goalscoring start to a season yet. Saka’s best season on an individual level was the 2023-24 campaign, where the Arsenal talisman hit 20 goals and 17 assists in all competitions.
Reaching 37 direct goal contributions set a huge benchmark for the England international, and we’ve held him to those standards since. He carried that form into the following season too, but unfortunately a severe hamstring injury completely derailed him.
The following season — last season’s title win — further injury niggles and setbacks restricted Saka to seven goals and seven assists in the Premier League. That’s still not a bad return by any means. But it’s not Saka level.
This season, he will be determined to reach the heights we know he’s capable of, in terms of output. And there seems to be a tactical shift by Mikel Arteta who is deploying him closer to goal in the opening games so far. Look at the two goals he scored from open play and where they were from — in the box and central. That’s an instruction by his manager, who wants more goals from his starman. And the data backs it up, because he’s taking on more shots than ever.
Bukayo Saka is taking more shots than ever
As per data from StatMuse, Saka is averaging 3.25 shots per game this season, which is more than his average from any previous campaign. Now, obviously, this is a very small sample size, but it’s still something worth keeping an eye on.
According to Opta, Saka has already taken 13 shots across his first four Premier League game, leading the Arsenal squad ahead of Kai Havertz (8).
With Martin Odegaard back to his best and taking more of the creative burden away from Saka, and Bruno Guimaraes adding more line-breaking passing quality from midfield, the Arsenal winger now has more license to attack the goal. He’s not constantly waiting wide on the touchline to beat his fullback and cross every time. At times, he’s even operating as a second-striker in the 18-yard box.
That has also been helped by the havoc Riccardo Calafiori causes on the other side. Opposition defences are forced to slide over to cover the unpredictable threat from the Arsenal full-back, which can create central space for Saka to crash the back post completely unmarked — as we saw in his goals against Coventry and Aston Villa.
Saka is now consistently taking high-value shots in central areas. And if he keeps that up throughout the season, that will only result in more goals. You wouldn’t bet against him eclipsing his best goalscoring tally.