As Arsenal gets ready to play Manchester City on Sunday, Mikel Arteta must make a difficult decision and endure a nervous wait. The health of his players has once again taken centre stage in the lead-up to the game, which may have been a nice diversion after their humiliation on Tuesday in Europe.
With his customary ambiguity, Arteta effectively neglected to reveal anything, leaving everyone in the suspense leading up to this game. Bukayo Saka is the focal focus of it all, and at this moment, there isn’t much evidence to support either side of a conclusion.
The 22-year-old was substituted in France after only 30 minutes, which could have been the breaking point for a player who had already logged more than 10,000 minutes in league action without taking into account the demands of England or the type of his game or how often he is fouled.
Saka is in doubt going into the biggest match of the year so far between the top two and title contenders from the previous campaign. It’s not at all what Arteta would have preferred, and his Friday message was straightforward. Let’s see how he develops from now until Sunday, the Spaniard remarked, adding that he is still in contention. “He had to leave the pitch, that’s never good news but let’s see how he recovers.”
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