Arsenal handed Bukayo Saka injury timeline boost as Champions League blessing in disguise emerges

Arsenal handed Bukayo Saka injury timeline boost as Champions League blessing in disguise emerges

Mikel Arteta has acknowledged that Bukayo Saka is making really good progress as Arsenal hope to have him back from injury in a few weeks after March’s international break.

Arsenal now arguably have less need to rush Bukayo Saka back to fitness.

The attention is now solely on Bukayo Saka regarding Arsenal injuries after Gabriel Martinelli returned over the last week.

None of Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz or Takehiro Tomiyasu will play again this season, making Saka the last player that supporters anticipate returning to boost what remains of this campaign. Mikel Arteta is also making all the right noises, acknowledging during his post-match press conference at Old Trafford after the 1-1 draw with Manchester United that the player’s “progress is really good”.

“He is really willing, as you can all imagine – so we are positive that in a few weeks, hopefully, he will be back,” the Gunners head coach said after prefacing those comments by saying: “After the international break, let’s see where he is.”

Since that match, in which Martinelli played just over half an hour, the winger upped his minutes up to 45 with a late substitute appearance against PSV, replacing one of the four left-backs then on the pitch, Kieran Tierney. However, it was who played on the opposite flank to the Celtic-bound Scotland international who most impressed.

Raheem Sterling has still just scored once – back in September against Bolton in the third round of the League Cup – across 23 appearances this season. However, the Chelsea loanee doubled his number of assists within barely half an hour on Wednesday night. After pressing Tyrell Malacia to regain possession from the United loanee and reverse a pass into Oleksandr Zinchenko’s path inside six minutes, a trademark burst of speed down the right wing saw him beat Couhaib Driouech and skip past Malacia before pulling back a cross for Declan Rice to head home.

Sterling’s only blemish was a yellow card in the third minute of added time, which means he will miss the first leg of next month’s quarter-final showdown against Real Madrid at the Emirates Stadium. However, that could prove to be a blessing in disguise for Arsenal, at least in one sense.

Knowing that Sterling can’t play that game means Arteta can use Sterling more extensively in the Premier League after the international break, knowing he will get a midweek rest when Real are in north London. Thus, after his impressive performance, there is less need to rush Saka back for the previous two matches against Everton and Fulham.

The returning forward can instead build up minutes, much like Martinelli is currently doing, in preparation for the Madrid game, rather than risking him out of necessity, which could have conceivably been the case with Sterling seemingly out of the picture, being an unused substitute for the first time in over a month at Old Trafford, before this standout performance.