Bukayo Saka return to galvanise Arsenal in ideal preparation for Real Madrid test

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·1 avril 2025

Bukayo Saka return to galvanise Arsenal in ideal preparation for Real Madrid test

England winger will hope to quickly get up to speed against Fulham and Everton before huge Champions League quarter-final tie

Your matchday briefing on Arsenal, featuring team news and expert analysis from Simon Collings

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Aside from the knee injury Riccardo Calafiori picked up on Italy duty, Mikel Arteta will have breathed a sigh of relief that the first international break of the calendar year did not further decimate the health of his squad. In fact, Arsenal have come out the other side even stronger.

The heavy lifting there has been done by Bukayo Saka, who Arteta insists is “ready to go” against Fulham on Tuesday night. The 23-year-old is in line for a return after more than three months out with a hamstring injury that required surgery and was meticulously managed. He might even start.

The return of Arsenal’s talismanic right winger should provide a boost to the whole club - chiefly, as Arteta puts it, because of the “energy he transmits”.

Tuesday’s clash with Fulham and a final trip to Goodison Park to face Everton on Saturday (in a competition Arsenal now won’t win) should serve as the ideal preparation for next week’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Real Madrid. The Gunners need Saka fit and firing on all cylinders as they bid to eliminate the holders and reach the last four.

Arsenal's Premier League title hopes appear gone for another year; they trail leaders Liverpool by 12 points with only nine games left to play. Yet the Gunners are still expected to claim all three on Tuesday, in no small part because Fulham will still be reeling from the way Crystal Palace dumped them out of the FA Cup quarter-finals in Saturday’s 3-0 battering on home soil.

That said, Arsenal have failed to beat Fulham in each of their last three meetings. All the more reason why Arteta is likely to entrust Saka with the role of unpicking the lock.

The England international has not played since December, but the suggestion that he might be rusty on his return did not leave Arteta best pleased when it was broached in his press conference on Monday.

“Get that out of your head,” he said. “[Saka hasn’t] played for three months but [has] played for the last 48 months. Three in 48 is a very small percentage.”

In any case, Arteta and Arsenal are confident Saka has done all he can to prove his fitness while other stars jetted off across the globe over the last fortnight.

Reinstating Saka to the attack allows the development of Ethan Nwaneri to be managed at a slightly more tempered pace

Saka featured in an internal behind-closed-doors friendly and before that had come through six consecutive full training sessions.

On whether he must still be careful as to how much he uses Saka, Arteta said: “All the careful things are already done. Now it’s about putting him on the grass. He’s pushing because he really wants it. We’ve had to hold him back, even.”

Reinstating Saka to the attack gives Arsenal’s forward line much-needed firepower for the final stretch of the season and allows the development of 18-year-old winger Ethan Nwaneri to be managed at a slightly more tempered pace.

Without Saka, it is difficult to see how the Gunners could conceivably have gone all the way in Europe. With him, especially once he’s back up to speed, they will rightly believe they can.

Arsenal were knocked out of both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup during the three months Saka sat out, but the much grander prize of the Champions League is still in sight — especially now he is back.

In the words of his manager: “Bukayo comes back at the most important time of the season.”