Bukayo Saka's Rise: Arsenal's Dependence on Their Star
Arsenal’s Chelsea streak shows how far they’ve come. It also underlines why they now lean on Bukayo Saka more than ever.
The last time Chelsea beat Arsenal in the League was August 2021, a different era in almost every sense. Back then, more of today’s Arsenal players were in blue than in red. Kai Havertz led the line for Chelsea. Kepa Arrizabalaga watched on from the bench. Jorginho patrolled their midfield before making the switch to north London and then moving on again.
With Gabriel Martinelli departing this week, only one Arsenal player who featured that day remains at the club.
Bukayo Saka.
From creaking backline to brick wall
That afternoon at the Emirates, Mikel Arteta sent out a defence that feels like a relic. Rob Holding and Pablo Mari at centre-back. Cedric Soares and Kieran Tierney as full-backs. It was less a defensive unit and more a structure waiting to be blown open.
Chelsea didn’t need a second invitation.
Fast-forward to this season and the contrast is stark. Arsenal’s defence is now the cornerstone of a title-winning side. Two games, two clean sheets, and Coventry and Aston Villa limited to a single shot on target between them. David Raya has spent more time organising than saving.
Chelsea arrive with serious firepower. Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and Joao Pedro give Xabi Alonso one of the most dangerous front threes in the division. How they cope with Arsenal’s backline will say plenty about both teams’ seasons.
Yet the real story may lie further forward.
Saka’s stage, Saka’s moment
Saka is the only player in this Arsenal squad who has actually lost to Chelsea in an Arsenal shirt. In that 2021 defeat, he started on the left wing, a small but telling detail given the ongoing debate about who should own that flank now.
The summer narrative around Arsenal was clear: this is a team missing a true superstar in attack. A forward who guarantees numbers. The kind of player who means the defence doesn’t have to be perfect every week.
Arsenal tried to address it. They looked at elite forwards and came up short. Vinicius Junior was the poster name for the kind of talent they wanted but could not realistically land.
When Arteta was asked on Friday whether he has a world-class attacker in his squad, his answer was measured rather than emphatic.
“I love my players, that's all I can say,” he said. “In that bracket, how you want to put them, I don't know.”
Saka will feel he belongs in that bracket. Thierry Henry certainly thinks so. On Monday night, Henry set him a very specific challenge: 15 goals and 15 assists in a single Premier League season.
Saka has started like a player who took that personally.
He scored the only goal against Aston Villa, adding to his strike on the opening night against Coventry. The Achilles issue that nagged him last season and through the summer World Cup has eased. His movement looks freer. His bursts sharper.
Both goals have come from him arriving in the six-yard box, sniffing out chances like a poacher rather than a touchline winger. If that becomes habit, not coincidence, Arsenal’s “missing superstar” question may start to answer itself from within.
Arteta sensed something had shifted as soon as Saka returned for pre-season.
“I noticed that straight away,” the manager said. “This happens in your career and you need certain motivation, or a little pinch sometimes, to take it to a different level. And there are really good signs that Bukayo is giving to think that is going to be the case.”
Chelsea, the outlier Saka needs to fix
For all his growth, Chelsea remain an odd blind spot in Saka’s record. Since that 2021 defeat, he has faced them nine times and scored only once.
This version of Chelsea, though, offers opportunity.
Alonso’s side carry a threat going forward but they give you chances. Fulham scored twice against them on the opening weekend. Brighton put three past them a week later. The three-at-the-back shape leaves gaps out wide, the sort of spaces Saka thrives in, even if Jorrel Hato is likely to start as a more conservative wing-back on his side.
Saka will fancy the match-up. He’ll also recognise the sub-plot. This is a chance to outshine Palmer and Rogers, England team-mates and players Arsenal admired and tried to bring in earlier in the summer.
When asked what he made of Chelsea’s new look this week, Saka kept it short: “We’ll see on Sunday.”
Familiar faces, familiar rhythm
Part of Saka’s fast start owes plenty to the stability around him. Ben White has been ever-present at right-back, the pair’s understanding so ingrained it can look telepathic. White overlaps, underlaps, or simply holds his position and Saka knows exactly when to dart inside or hug the touchline.
Inside them, Martin Odegaard has been busy and inventive, popping up in those half-spaces where he links with Saka almost by instinct. The triangle down that right side remains Arsenal’s most reliable attacking pattern.
Arsenal did not land the “transformational” forward many expected. That means the solutions must be internal. No one is better placed to provide one than Saka.
In the 2024-25 campaign, he scored six league goals. The season before, he managed only one more. Those are solid numbers, not yet the return of a player Henry calls a future 15-and-15 man. If Saka stays fit and keeps arriving in the box the way he has in August, those tallies should not just be beaten. They should be left behind.
Sunday’s derby comes early in the calendar but heavy with weight. A statement game. A measuring stick. A chance for Arsenal to reinforce their grip over a London rival and for Saka to finally bend this particular fixture to his will.
The club’s “starboy” has long been the symbol of the project. Now, as Arsenal defend a title without the marquee forward many expected, the demand is different.
They don’t just need Saka to shine.
They need him to own afternoons like this and grow from poster boy into undisputed talisman.
