Bukayo Saka makes Premier League title claim

Bukayo Saka thinks this is the year for Arsenal to win the Premier League title, after a couple of tight title races in recent seasons.

Bukayo Saka scored for Arsenal against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday, leading the team out as captain following the recent injury to Martin Odegaard.

After the game, former Gunner and CBS Sports pundit Thierry Henry asked Saka whether this was the year for Arsenal to go on and win the Premier League title.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on us, but I do think this is the year,” Saka said. “I think we’ve been close the last two years, and we’re getting closer. But yeah, this hopefully will be the year.”

On a personal level, Saka shared a light-hearted Instagram post captioned “friends again!” with Arsenal legend Robert Pires after the game.

Pires had questioned Saka’s consistency in a recent interview, but it’s hard to argue with the winger’s displays so far this season.

The 23-year-old has scored or assisted seven goals for Arsenal in nine appearances, and it would have been eight if his assist for Leandro Trossard’s second goal on Saturday hadn’t ultimately gone down as a Wilfred Ndidi own goal.

Pires compared Saka to Jeremy Doku, but the Manchester City winger has just one goal (against lower-league Watford) and one assist (against Slovan Bratislava) this season.

Saka has more than that in his three games against Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, and Paris Saint-Germain alone.

The ‘beef’ between Saka and Pires was likely never really serious, with fans making more of it than the individuals involved, but it’s nice that they’re comfortable enough to joke about it now.