Bukayo Saka Reveals How Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta Is Getting The Best Out Of Him

The Gunners are yet to pick maximum points since the erstwhile Pep Guardiola assistant took charge two games ago, but the England youth star is confident that the new Arsenal manager knows what he is doing.

England youth international Bukayo Saka has revealed that Arsenal will start to do well once players begin to apply Mikel Arteta’s philosophy.

The flying winger started in the draw against Bournemouth and the last gasp loss to Chelsea on Boxing Day, albeit as a left-back. Saka impressed in the unfamiliar role, putting up a decent defensive shift and bombing forward with energy whenever the opportunity presented itself.

But Arsenal are still with just one win in 15 games in all competitions, and the Gunners find themselves closer on points to the relegation zone than the Champions League places.

However, Bukayo Saka believes that all that will soon change for good once the team starts to play the Arteta way.

“He has his own way, his own philosophy and he’s even talked about bringing his own philosophy to the club, to try to bring the club back to the direction we need to be in,” Saka told Arsenal.

“We need to win games and win trophies, so I feel like he has that vision and that strategy. He knows how he wants us to get there. If we can be on board and do what he wants us to, we’ll do well.”

Saka also credited Arteta with giving him some clear tactics and tips that helped him excel in an unfamiliar defensive position.

The Spaniard has clarified what the England youth star has to do when he has possession and isn’t being pressed by an opponent.

“He’s teaching us little things that we didn’t know before and just bringing in his own strategies, his own ways of playing. We can see that it’s going to work, we’re just looking forward to doing it.

“Maybe one thing that I’ve picked up straight away is that when nobody’s pressing you, you don’t need to pass the ball. What you can do is just get the ball, drive the ball forward a bit and wait for someone to come to you, commit a player, then pass it.

“Then that man will be free or that man will have less pressure on him. It’s just attracting players before you pass the ball off, which will help our team-mates a lot on the pitch.”

The talented teenager also explained that he is excited to work with the new Arsenal boss who took over from the sacked Unai Emery two weeks ago.

It would be recalled that Emery gave Saka his debut in January, which made him the third-youngest player in Arsenal’s history.