Bukayo Saka signed his palm with his index finger when he’d ghosted in to score his first goal in 15 games on Wednesday night and the gesture told you something about the personal significance of the new five-year deal he’s agreed with the club this week.
The extension of his Arsenal contract into his late 20s makes it extremely likely that he will become the first player to complete 10 years at the club since Aaron Ramsey. That gesture at Molineux spoke of a bond; a layer of significance extending way beyond the arithmetic of a deal which makes Saka, the one still known as ‘Star Boy’ around Arsenal, the club’s best paid player.
The look on his face in that moment, as snow began to douse an Arctic Molineux, surely also had something to do with the fact that Mikel Arteta has, by accident rather than design, stumbled upon the No 10 role which could transform his contribution.
He’s been there for the past two games because of injuries to every other candidate -and Eberechi Eze’s inconsistencies – and if the performance against Wigan offered promise, Wednesday night confirmed it. Saka created from areas where we have simply not been accustomed to seeing him.
He initiated the move down Arsenal’s right channel which concluded with Noni Madueke going close. Then there was the interchange in the opposite channel with Declan Rice, the team’s ultimate shining light, sending the midfielder in who backheeled for Piero Hincapie – another source of optimism in these anxious days for Arsenal fans.
All that, before the psychology of this title race began to suffocate the team. ‘This role will lift him a little bit and enable him to get into positions he otherwise wouldn’t,’ Alan Smith said of Saka.
Bukayo Saka signs the palm of his hand after ghosting in to score his first goal in 15 games on Wednesday night
Saka scores through the legs of Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa – but the Gunners were pegged back at the death to drop points in the title race
The captaincy the 24-year-old has taken in Martin Odegaard’s absence signified something, too. He was cajoling and issuing instructions.
Though the treacherous physical jeopardy of Premier League football was present wherever you looked. Saka screamed in pain and lay crumpled in front of us after Wolves defender Hugo Bueno kicked him in the foot. ‘Injured again,’ taunted the Wolves fans. He was substituted as a precaution, having been floored for a final time later in the game.
As he fronted up to discuss the team’s late capitulation on Wednesday – ‘the league is still our’s to control… we have to focus on that and fix the issues we’ve got,’ he said – you were reminded of this man’s enduring faculty to shrug off all the blows and come through the dark times. The racist abuse, the injuries and the dips in form which have removed the absolute certainty that he will be a starter at the World Cup.
His goal drought before Wednesday night was the longest of his career. He has this summer’s tournament as an incentive and, of course, the white-knuckle ride which the title race is shaping into.
Arsenal have led the Premier League table for 147 days this season, while Manchester City only reached the peak in the meaningless table after the season’s first game – their 4-0 win at Molineux. Yet by the time Arteta’s players face Chelsea at the Emirates on March 1, City could be back at the summit, with their game in hand against Leeds coming the day before.
It is the muscle memory of Manchester City reeling them in two years ago, and of three successive seasons as runners-up, which is as great an obstacle as anything now.
Saka feels the pain before being taken off during Arsenal’s demoralising draw at Wolves at Wednesday night
Mikel Arteta has chosen Saka to be his captain in the absence of the injured Martin Odegaard
Saka also has his England place to play for with the World Cup looming this summer
Suddenly, the Carabao Cup final between Arsenal and City in late March is assuming huge significance. Win it and Arteta’s side will approach their likely monumental trip to the Etihad 27 days later with conviction. Losing at Wembley could make that Manchester occasion seem suffocating.
For Arsenal, the positives to take include the fact that City are not the Rolls Royce machine of old, even though their turnaround at Anfield currently haunts the league leaders more than they dare publicly admit. City are prone to inconsistency, too. Is Erling Haaland fully fit? It doesn’t always look that way.
Arteta’s steely demeanour in the Wolves press room late on Wednesday felt significant, too. Less of the relentless media-speak positivity we’ve witnessed after occasions like the Manchester United defeat and a few home truths.
Rice feels like the most important figure of all if this league title is to be won. But somehow, you suspect that Saka might just dominate the narrative, a few months hence. The graduation of the one-time Hale End Arsenal academy boy with the megawatt smile and utter indefatigability who took his beloved club over the greatest hurdle of all.
