The Gunners winger is clearly an outstanding young talent but he has yet to prove he can shine in the champions' backyard
Bukayo Saka was buzzing after Arsenal beat Porto to progress to the last eight of the Champions League for the first time since 2010. But what arguably mattered more than the historic nature of the victory was the manner in which it had been achieved.
Arsenal had proved their mettle in a penalty shootout – a satisfying and significant achievement for a squad so often accused of lacking bottle, most infamously after last season's Premier League title collapse. All of a sudden, the upcoming trip to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City didn't seem so scary to Saka.
Indeed, when asked in his post-match interview on if Arsenal could win at the home of the champions, he replied, "Yeah, we can. We can." "Right now, we're top of the league, we're into the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and we're going into the international break," he pointed out. "So that gives us a lot of momentum, a lot of belief that we can go to the Etihad and get a good result."
The thing is, though, recent history does not bode well for Arsenal – or indeed Saka making a major statement of intent on Sunday. Mikel Arteta's men have known nothing but misery at Man City.
GettyOne 'win' in 10 games against City
Saka has faced City 10 times. Only on one occasion has he come out on the winning side, and that was on penalties in the meaningless Community Shield at the start of the current campaign – and even then only after Arsenal had levelled in the 11th minute of stoppage-time with a weak shot from Leandro Trossard that took a fortuitous deflection off Manuel Akanji.
Saka could claim an assist for that goal but, in truth, he had only played a simple pass to the Belgian wide on the left-hand side of the area. The reality is that he has never created a goal in his nine competitive outings against City – which includes a 5-0 drubbing at the Etihad in August 2021 and only goes to underline just how much one of the most effective wingers in the Premier League has struggled against Pep Guardiola's side.
AdvertisementGetty Title challenge ended at the Etihad
He does have a couple of goals, at least. The first was a smart finish at the Emirates on New Year's Day 2022 that ended Arsenal's run of six games without a goal against City, who still went on to win the game. The second was a penalty in the 3-1 home defeat last February that signalled an irreversible shift in power in last season's title race. Indeed, by the time Arsenal travelled to Manchester for the return clash just over two months later, the writing was on the wall.
City didn't just beat Arsenal, though, they bullied them, inflicting serious psychological damage on the young Gunners in a 4-1 win that effectively sealed a third consecutive title. Saka, the PFA's Young Player of the Year, barely got a look-in.
The fear obviously is that it will be a similar story this weekend.
Getty ImagesDifferent story this season?
Arsenal will obviously arrive at the Etihad in a very different state of mind to last April. By that stage, the wheels were well and truly coming off, with the Gunners having dropped six points in their previous three games by drawing with Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton, even throwing away two-goal leads in the first two fixtures. Therefore, defeat felt depressingly inevitable against a City side that had once again hit top form at the business end of the season.
This time around, Arsenal are flying, having gone top of the table thanks to eight consecutive league wins since the turn of the year. Saka has been unsurprisingly key. After just one goal in four months, he struck seven times in five games between January 30 and February 24. And yet doubts remain.
Getty ImagesPoor performances against Porto
For all of Saka's understandable excitement after the Porto game, there's no getting away from the fact that both he and Arsenal performed poorly against the Portuguese side – and in both legs too.
Arsenal legend and pundit Martin Keown said that the England international "wasn't really himself" in the 1-0 loss at the Dragao, "giving the ball away" constantly, while even Saka admitted himself that he had not played well in the second leg at the Emirates.
In hindsight, he may well have been hampered by the minor muscular problem that prevented him from reporting for England duty during the international break, and the word is that he will be fit to play this weekend. The thing is, though, Arsenal will need him at 100 percent if they are to win a league game at the Etihad for the first time in nine years.