The Arsenal academy product left the Hale End for £0, and is now miles better than Saka

Arsenal are on course for a quadruple, but Mikel Arteta knows his side will need to build on Wednesday’s Champions League draw.

Kai Havertz earned a point with a late penalty, and the Emirates play Bayer Leverkusen next week, dominated by a sea of ​​Gunners supporters who will be hoping to see their side through to the quarter-finals, where they will face Bodø/Glimt.

However, there is no question that the Londoners look tired, and who better to explain that than Bukayo Saka, who is the epitome of a team eyeing greatness?

What happened to Bukayo Saka

First thing’s first: Saka is one of the best players in the world. His energy and enthusiasm and his ability to do great things with raw materials led to a huge new contract making him the highest earner in Arsenal’s history.

However, he has scored just six goals and provided five assists in 26 Premier League games this season, and there have been calls for him to be replaced by Noni Madueke, with former Manchester United defender Paul Parker even braving that he is “better than Bukayo Saka”.

This is not true, but it is both a reflection of Madueke’s gains since switching blue and red last summer and Saka’s struggles throughout the campaign. Against Leverkusen, he was stuck on the clock, ineffective, losing six out of eight duels and failing to create chances.

Saka is at his best, but he is not without his flaws, and there is a reason he should take the bench against Everton on Saturday evening, especially with so much to play for in the next few months.

It’s time for Madueke to step up, but others on the Gunners board must be looking down on a young player who once reached the first team, who is now one of the best players in the world.

Hale Ender is now better than Saka

Arsenal’s Hale End academy is one of the best in the world. With so many talented prospects emerging, it would be impossible to catch every one of them.

Still, it must be frustrating that Michael Olise was among those who snapped the fingers of the coaches, as the Bayern Munich star is now “the best winger in the world”, according to The Times reporter Hamzah Khalique-Loonat.

The 24-year-old has been in fine form since joining the Germans from Crystal Palace in 2024, netting 10 goals and 16 assists in 23 Bundesliga appearances this season. That’s incredible form, and further proof that he’s been “a world-class player since his Palace days”, as commentator Spencer Mossman put it.

In fact, with 26 assists in all competitions this season, Olise is the leading assist-maker in all of Europe, and it doesn’t look like he will be stripped of his honor.

The former Eagles player is developing into a playmaker, a builder in Bayern Munich’s attack and a perfect partner for Harry Kane (ie, another Gunners teenager).

Given that Arsenal this season showed interest in the player who left them as an academy boy back in 2009, he ended up not settling in north London and instead moved to Chelsea, where he spent more than six years of his formative years.

At this point in time, Olise is certainly the cream of the crop, ahead of Saka, Lamine Yamal, Mohamed Salah et al.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Saka won’t take over the position in the coming years, and there won’t be many Gunners fans who would swap Olise for their star player.

Olise would be better than Saka right now. Although Saka’s numbers will surely rise if he makes the move from Arsenal to Munich, he has emerged as one of the world’s best wingers in a difficult division like the Premier League since his youth, and has the potential to lead Arteta’s project to continued success both domestically and abroad, as he has done over the years.

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