Let’s face it, with Odegaard out injured, Saka will also be much less productive for Arsenal

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·20 de setembro de 2024

Let’s face it, with Odegaard out injured, Saka will also be much less productive for Arsenal

Like it or not Ødegaard’s long term absence will inevitably affect Saka and White.

Arsenal fans have finally gotten the chance to know the result of the scans conducted on Martin Ødegaard’s ankle recently and it is not good news, in his press conference before the game against Atalanta, Mikel Arteta has confirmed that the Norwegian suffered significant damage to a ligament in his ankles.

Vídeos OneFootball

The boss wasn’t too keen to put a time scale on the injury, but most of us know that the injury will keep him out for a while, a month and the half at the very least in my opinion, which will see him miss crucial games that could potentially be season defining. We’ve already got off to the best possible start in his absence however, with the win against spurs proving we can handle this loss in the biggest of games.

Nevertheless what has got me worried is how isolated Bukayo Saka became at times in the game against Spurs, without the presence of Ødegaard, the familiar theme of the opposition doubling up on our winger became a tough ask for Saka to deal with all on his own.

This led to some instances where he struggled to beat his man one v one, the little dynamic they have going there between Ødegaard, Saka and White has been the best avenue for chance creation in the Arsenal eleven for a while now, and with Ødegaard now being out for this long, it means that we’ll lack that extra cutting edge their combination brings to the squad. not to talk of a potential dip in the form of Bukayo Saka during this period.

What I also fear the most about this is against the perceived weaker teams, who’ll be happy just to sit deep and frustrate us to play on the counter. That extra creativity needed to unluck those teams will sorely be needed, and given we’ll be without our biggest creative force means we may struggle with those sort of games.

Even though we have a strong defence to bail us out of trouble it may still not be enough given how conceding the odd goal will eventually be inevitable in a game of football.

This will be a big blow to right side but will we be able to cope with this till he’s back ?

KENNETH BENJAMIN.

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