Saka the leader is back…

“Bukayo is ready to go” are the words everyone involved with Arsenal have been waiting to hear.

They came from Mikel Arteta before the visit of Fulham today. “We played once (a game behind closed doors), but before that he had six consecutive sessions with the team and he was good,” the manager added. “We played that game, he felt completely fine. So that’s why I’m sure that we have managed to replicate almost every scenario.”

Out for three months with a hamstring tear, Saka’s absence has made it abundantly clear — if it was not already — that he has been Arsenal’s driving force over the past six years.

He made his debut in November 2018 and, aged 23, reached 250 appearances for the club in December’s 5-1 win at Crystal Palace, where he was forced off after 24 minutes. He also became the second-youngest Arsenal player to hit that tally in the modern era after Cesc Fabregas, who achieved the feat aged 22 and 215 days.

Weeks after the injury, in the pre-Aston Villa press conference in January, Mikel Arteta said: “He needs to get away for a few days and refresh.”

And this is exactly what Saka did, going on a week-long holiday with his family, where he tried to take advantage of his first major injury lay-off to be more present with those around him.

His rehab ramped up during Arsenal’s February trip to Dubai. He was still restricted to gym work, but travelling to Dubai meant quality time with the group rather than being left to rehab alone at Arsenal’s training ground. Then came this international break, during which Saka was back training with the ball at his feet.

Now, Saka is on the verge of returning to action — for which Arsenal will be all the better for many reasons, not least because he is a leader.

This is Saka’s fifth season wearing the No 7 shirt. The England winger’s evolution in that time is obvious if you look at his numbers, which have risen every year, but those milestones have also been represented in other ways.

Those who walk by Highbury & Islington train station on their way to the Emirates will be familiar with the street corner near Big Papa’s Peri Peri. In September 2021, following his first major tournament with England, the delayed Euro 2020, New Balance used the space to promote Saka: “This is Bukayo. Little Chilli brings heat”, was the tagline, next to an image of the then-19-year-old.

This was a month before his 100th Arsenal appearance.

Persil used the same space at the start of this season. Saka was the focus again, this time with the advertising slogan, “Leave a mark on the pitch, not on your kit”. But he had shed the ‘Little Chilli’ nickname given to him by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

This latest mural also came after a European Championship. In Germany last summer, a more seasoned Saka stepped forward to England’s rescue. After pre-tournament debates about whether he should be moved to left-back, a problem position for the national team, he struck from outside the box to drag England back from 1-0 down against Switzerland in a tricky quarter-final.

His immediate reaction was to cup his ears before running to former Arsenal team-mate Aaron Ramsdale. He did so again after scoring in the penalty shootout, and carried that extra air of outward confidence into this season.

A few weeks before his 23rd birthday, he shrugged nonchalantly to celebrate scoring on the opening day of the Premier League season against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Away at Aston Villa in Arsenal’s second league game, he shushed the home fans, who were booing him for a fourth season in a row, as he made his way to the bench.

Those around him could sense this was a different Saka from the one who had left for Euro 2024 earlier in the summer. While he has had to deal with repeated trophy near-misses for club and country, those setbacks helped shape him. His influence has grown. He is increasingly a leader on and off the field.

There were signs of this development last season. When he scored with the ball bouncing off his chest against Lens, manager Arteta said in his post-match press conference: “That’s a different edge to score ugly goals as well. That’s a different kind of aggression that’s good in this game, and that’s a really positive thing to see.”

This is an area of Saka’s game that Arteta wanted to see develop. November’s trip to West Ham United this season is a good example. Saka assisted twice and scored again at the London Stadium, pulling out the stop-talking celebration.

But he was also the first to back Jurrien Timber as West Ham players surrounded the right-back on the touchline, as he did in September’s north London derby win when Guglielmo Vicario had Timber by the shirt.

Martin Odegaard was back wearing the captain’s armband by West Ham away, but Saka had benefited from two months with it.

Saka deputised as captain while Odegaard was injured (Jose Manuel Alvarez Rey/JAR Sport Images/NurPhoto/Getty Images)

Saka joined Arsenal’s leadership group at the start of this season, following the departures of Cedric Soares, Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka, and after his first few matches with the armband, Arteta discussed his development during the pre-Shakhtar Donetsk press conference.

“We had discussions and said certain things that we had to do to give him the right example,” the manager said, “to give him tools, to give him the direction of what kind of leader he wanted to be.”

Saka was being empowered.

“It was a natural thing for him,” Odegaard said of his deputy in a pre-Monaco press conference. “He’s grown into a leader in the team and he can do that in his own way, which is very natural. So I didn’t have to do anything special, but he enjoyed it and it was well-deserved that he got the armband for a few games as well.”

Saka loved his time with the armband, apparently feeling no stress about the situation. In a conversation with Theo Walcott for Amazon Prime, he said: “I think pressure is kind of made up.”

While injured, Odegaard would be in the changing room before and after games at the Emirates before heading to his box, but Saka still led in his own right. Saka is close with most of the squad and their trust and respect for him as captain seems natural.

He was in a good position to make decisions for the group, but there was still a learning curve. He had worn the armband once previously, against Sheffield United last season, but doing so for six starts provided new experiences that might be overlooked on TV or in the stands — the importance of communicating with a referee to calm situations or setting an example in more intense matches.

As captain, Saka took responsibility for communicating with officials (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

He can be vocal on the pitch, but blending that with setting the example and understanding his team-mates has been essential to his growth as a leader. Like Odegaard, he made the effort to be in the changing room before and after matches while out injured. He also remained present for team meetings during his recovery, making sure he was still part of the group.

That presence was recently seen on the international stage, when Saka was pictured at Wembley during England’s 3-0 win over Latvia. It would have been his decision to attend Thomas Tuchel’s second match in charge of the national team. Travelling to England’s training camps was considered, but supporting his team-mates and meeting Tuchel at Wembley made more sense logistically.

Another major part of Saka’s evolution has been his output.

The England international has reached double figures for goal involvements for four consecutive seasons in the Premier League, hitting records along the way. The winger does not research his own numbers, but will be made aware of relevant milestones he can achieve going into matches. His challenge is always to contribute to a win, but if he can break a record, it will drive him further.

After last season’s trip to West Ham, when he scored his ninth and 10th league goals of the season (his previous best goals tally for a season was 14, set the previous year), he was asked about his numbers. “I have my own targets,” he told reporters. “I just try to stay in my own lane and stay focused on what I wanted to achieve at the start of the season. I’m still going and I’ve got quite a few more to go.”

Saka went on to set a new personal record for league goals in a season with 16, scoring 20 in all competitions. This season, he is just one assist away from his best return in a league season (11), despite not playing since December.

Saka’s 10 league assists see him ranked joint-second in the Premier League this season alongside Antonee Robinson and Mikkel Damsgaard. Five of those assists came in the opening five games of the season, matching a record set by Thierry Henry at the start of the 2004-05 season.

He had also created more Opta-defined ‘big chances’ than anyone in the league (19) by the time of his injury — a number Mohamed Salah (21) only surpassed in recent weeks.

As decisive as he had ever been in an Arsenal shirt, and particularly important when Odegaard was out injured, the thought of what Saka could have achieved this season had he stayed injury-free will likely haunt those affiliated with Arsenal, no matter how the campaign ends.

Saka is five and a half years older than Ethan Nwaneri and five years older than Myles Lewis-Skelly. The example he has set in the six years since he was integrated into the first team has made a significant impact.

Saka often highlights David Luiz and Alexandre Lacazette as senior players who helped him adapt to the first-team environment. While they were respected professionals, Saka has even closer experience to Arsenal’s current youngsters, coming straight from the academy.

“I always have to make myself available to him if he needs to speak to me,” Saka told Walcott when asked about Nwaneri in that Amazon Prime conversation.

Saka’s leadership qualities could be seen in a joint post-match interview with Lewis-Skelly after the Monaco win. The pair were in a world of their own before realising the first question had begun, and then Saka told TNT Sports: “I said to him, like I did before the game, that this is his level. He needs to have no doubts and play with confidence.”

Playing with no doubts has been a trait of Saka’s since before he made his first-team debut. It is what made Freddie Ljungberg fight to move him into the under-23s squad in the 2018-19 season, which saw him play against senior teams for the first time in the EFL Trophy. Just months later, Unai Emery was selecting him in the Europa League, where he showed the same fearlessness that has carried him this far.

For those who have seen that journey, it is not just what Saka does on the pitch that draws people to him. During seven games without a win in late 2020, Saka posted this on Twitter.

He still remembers this post. He will always be the one to post on his social media accounts, even if there is some guidance, and on that occasion, honesty felt like the best policy.

Towards the end of this international break, he turned to Instagram, posting a photo of himself in training with a thumb up captioned “Hello again”. Arsenal fans across social media were delighted and the post had 489,000 likes within 24 hours.

He is the third-youngest player to make 250 appearances for Arsenal after Cesc Fabregas and David O’Leary. On his way to hitting that tally, Saka overtook another beloved No 7 in David Rocastle, who played 248 games for Arsenal. Next on the list are Nacho Monreal (251 games), Olivier Giroud (253), Mesut Ozil (254).

But the biggest difference between him and the names etched in Arsenal folklore is silverware, something he wants to deliver as much as anyone.

A Champions League quarter-final meeting with Real Madrid could be the best opportunity to make that a reality. But first, Fulham and Everton provide a test for how quickly Arsenal’s star man can find his footing again.

 (Top photo: Saka with the captain’s armband ahead of playing Liverpool in October; by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)