ESPN pundit reacts to Bukayo Saka's display in Arsenal loss at Everton
Steve Nicol has told ESPN that Bukayo Saka produced arguably his worst performance of the season on Saturday as Arsenal were beaten by Everton at Goodison Park.
The Gunners suffered their second defeat of the Premier League campaign. A James Tarkowski header helped the Toffees to a surprise victory in Sean Dyche’s first game in charge.
It is fair to say that Arsenal were not at the races by their own standards. Mikel Arteta’s men struggled to cope with Everton’s press on a day where the pitch made zipping the ball around extremely difficult.
Nicol criticises Bukayo Saka after Arsenal loss
In fact, Jordan Pickford was not given a huge amount to do when you consider that the game pitted two sides from opposite ends of the table against each other.
Certainly, the performances of Seamus Coleman and Vitaly Mykolenko had a huge say in where the points went. Neither Saka or Martinelli had particularly good games, with the latter coming off before the hour-mark.
And Nicol claimed that Saka has probably not been worse for the Gunners this season.
“Martinelli never got a sniff out of Coleman. Same on the other side, Mykolenko gave Saka nothing. That’s probably the worst game we’ve ever seen from Saka this season,” he told ESPN.
Of course, one of the main reasons why Nicol’s comments may be accurate is that Saka has been absolutely unbelievable this season. He has set an amazing standard. So there was always going to be a time when he struggled.
Having said that, Saka still managed four key passes, according to Whoscored. No player on either side could match that tally.
He also managed more than double the number of successful dribbles of any other player. And only Dominic Calvert-Lewin could match his number of attempts on goal.
It was a disappointing day for Arsenal. And in previous years, you would imagine that Brentford would relish the fact that they face Arteta’s men next.
However, this is a different Arsenal side. So the Bees will be very, very wary of the reaction coming their way.
