{"id":479061,"date":"2026-02-16T19:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479061\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T19:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:29:07","slug":"the-next-step-in-the-evolution-of-bukayo-saka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479061\/","title":{"rendered":"The next step in the evolution of Bukayo Saka"},"content":{"rendered":"

But this was not the first time that Saka has played in a central role under Arteta.<\/p>\n

During the lockdown season of 2020, Saka played in midfield against Brighton<\/a> in a 2-1 loss, hitting the crossbar from the edge of the box with a right-footed shot and providing an assist for Nicolas Pepe.<\/p>\n

Saka is one of the best wingers in the world, even if his numbers are down from what you would likely expect from him so far this season.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old has seven goals and seven assists in 33 games in all competitions this season.<\/p>\n

One thing that makes Saka so threatening is that he can control the ball in tight spaces even when closely marked and he showed that when challenged by the Wigan midfield during the game.<\/p>\n

He dropped deep to pick the ball up while he also swapped positions with Noni Madueke, who was playing in Saka’s usual right-wing position, and the Gunners’ third goal came from Saka’s cross after good work between the pair on the right.<\/p>\n

Saka playing in that position could also mean the pathway for 16-year-old Max Dowman is clearer and means Arteta could play the talented youngster and Saka in the same side. <\/p>\n

Madueke is also in excellent form and has three goals and an assist in his last five games and with Wolves<\/a> on Wednesday and midfield injuries, there’s a chance we could see Saka continue in his role, with Arteta hinting the England international could feature there more this season.<\/p>\n

“That’s something that’s a possibility and I wanted to try it, and we might use it in the future,” Arteta said.<\/p>\n

“There are still so many games, competitions and different scenarios to play in this season, and that’s a possibility that we have.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But this was not the first time that Saka has played in a central role under Arteta. During…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-479061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}