Arsenal fans got the Bukayo Saka confirmation they feared all along

Everyone is searching for answers following Arsenal’s recent decline in form. After losing only three of their first 49 fixtures in all competitions this season, Mikel Arteta’s team have suffered four defeats in six, only beating Sporting CP since 17 March. So, is it Arteta’s training methods and tactics, is it mentality, or could it simply be, at least in part, the absence of the Gunners’ best attacker?

Bukayo Saka has not been seen since the Carabao Cup Final, sitting out the subsequent five matches and is not expected back especially soon. Everyone who criticised him for “faking an injury” to get out of England duty should be made to publicly apologise. Saka’s tally of nine goals and seven assists this season is below his usual high standards, but his importance is clear for all to see.

Arsenal’s Premier League results 2025/26 with vs without Bukayo Saka

The numbers do not lie. Three of Arsenal’s five Premier League defeats this season have come in Saka’s absence, beaten at Anfield in August as well as Bournemouth and Manchester City across the last two weekends. With Saka starting, the Gunners’ points-per-game is 2.4 which, extrapolated across a full season, would see them end on 91 points; their current maximum is 85.

For comparison, their tally of 1.5 points-per-game without Saka would see them accrue just 57 across an entire season, which would have seen them finish ninth in both of the last two campaigns. Put succinctly, Arteta’s team very infrequently lose matches with Saka on the pitch.

Arsenal defeats 24/25 & 25/26: Was Bukayo Saka playing?

Since the start of last season, Arteta’s team have lost only 17 of 113 matches across all competitions, including the FA Cup shootout exit against Manchester United. Of these 17 games, Saka has been absent for nine of them, which is a very high ratio considering he has only missed 34 matches, featuring in 70% of games, despite his long-term hamstring injury.

Whoever deputises on that right flank, whether it be Ethan Nwaneri last season or Noni Madueke this time round, is simply not able to have the same impact on games that Saka produces. Yes, his raw data, goals and assists, is down on previous campaigns, but his is still the Gunners’ joint-third highest scorer this season, behind only Viktor Gyökeres and Gabriel Martinelli.

More than that, Arsenal simply find chance creation without Saka a very difficult task. Arteta’s team struggled to build through the thirds and get up the pitch without the option of being able to funnel the ball out to their star boy on the right.

The 24-year-old is still nursing an Achilles injury, which some speculated could see him sit out the rest of the season, potentially even the World Cup in the summer. However, there is now hope that he could play some part in the upcoming Champions League semi-final with Atlético Madrid, and his return simply cannot come soon enough.