Already level on assists with Pirès 

©TM/IMAGO

It’s 16th December 2020. Arsenal have just drawn 1-1 at home to Southampton. They are six games without a league win, and the Gunners are 15th in the Premier League table. After the game, a 19-year-old Bukayo Saka comes out and tweets “You deserve more Arsenal fans”. In reality the teenager was already Arsenal’s best performer and dragging a poor Arsenal team through a difficult period. It was the older players letting the club down. Four years on and Saka is Mikel Arteta’s superstar. Following Arsenal’s 2-0 win against PSG in the Champions League last week, club legend Thierry Henry asked Saka if this is going to be the year where Arsenal finally win a major trophy again, and he said, “I don’t want to put too much pressure on us, but I do think this is the year.” Saka was captain that night and if he can lead this Arsenal team to a major title, he is on the way to becoming a true legend at the club.

Over the past couple of seasons, in which Arsenal have come mightily close to winning the Premier League for the first time in 20 years, Saka has asserted himself as one of the best wingers in world football. He has a current market value of €140 million making him the sixth most valuable player in the world. He has started this campaign in fine form – no player in the top five leagues has more league assists and no player in the Premier League has created more chances.

His two assists in Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Southampton took him level with Robert Pirès for assists. He only just turned 23 years old in September. What Saka has already achieved at such a young age is frightening. If he stays at the club long term and continues performing at this level, he could end up leading the records in almost every department in the Premier League for Arsenal, but how long would it take Saka to do so? He made his Gunners debut at 17 and is defying his age to date.

Bukayo Saka’s incredible PL achievements by 23 & where it ranks him

The fact Saka only last month turned 23 years old just doesn’t sound right. He has been around for so long and for a while now has been arguably Arsenal’s most important player. Arsenal’s ‘Starboy’ already has 91 direct Premier League goal contributions. The only player with a higher total before turning 24 years old is former midfielder Cesc Fàbregas (112). Saka still has 11 months to beat that. If we isolate it to just goals scored before turning 24 years old in the Premier League for Arsenal, as you can see below, Saka is top of the tree with 49 strikes in the English top-flight. The next closest is Theo Walcott with 37.

When we consider that he first properly broke into the Arsenal first-team playing as a left-back, and played 15 of his 177 Premier League matches in that position, that becomes all the more impressive. In fact, according to Transfermarkt data, Saka has only played 81 matches as a right winger – the position now synonymous with the Englishmen. When it comes to just assists, he is second only to Fàbregas who astonishingly had 77 Premier League assists for the Gunners before turning 24. However, Fàbregas was playing in a far stronger team than the side Saka first came into a few years back.

How long will it take Saka to lead the Premier League records for Arsenal?

It seems crazy to talk about a player breaking the Premier League records for a club as prestigious as Arsenal at just 23 years of age, but with Saka it’s a valid conversation. Isolating the Premier League era since the 1992/93 season, you can see the current record holders for Premier League games, goals, and assists and where Saka already ranks on these lists below. In the top 26 of all three, and already eighth for assists, Saka will keep on climbing these charts. Ray Parlour has the most Premier League appearances for Arsenal with 333, Henry has the most goals with 175, and Dennis Bergkamp has the most assists with 96, but how many years will these legends hold on to these accolades with Saka about?

Of course we don’t know exactly what the future holds. Saka could face serious injuries or even leave the club. However, he still has three years on his current contract, and it’s hard to see him leaving the club he grew up at and is currently captaining and challenging for trophies with any time soon. Manager Arteta recently reverberated Saka’s achievements, saying: “Don’t forget about Bukayo Saka’s age. There are the stats and you cannot get away from that and what he’s doing at his age is unbelievable” In the last three full seasons, Saka has averaged 37 games a season. If he continues that level of availability, he will beat Parlour’s Premier League appearances record in the 2028/29 season – just over four campaigns away.

So far in his career, Saka has a record of 0.28 goals per game, and 0.24 assists per game. However, as touched upon he began his time with the first team at left-back and was in and out the team as a youngster, so it’s fairer to take those averages from the last three full seasons alone when calculating what Saka could achieve at Arsenal. Those numbers leave Saka with 0.37 goals per game, and 0.24 assists per game. Thus meaning he would have to play 340 more Premier League games to reach Henry’s 175 goals, which would take us all the way to the 2032/33 season. However, still just 23, it’s quite likely that Saka will still continue improving his numbers, meaning he could get close to that record earlier. It’s also worth remembering all of the top six record scorers for Arsenal are out-and-out No.9’s.

When it comes to assists, he is already over half way to Bergkamp’s total of 96. At his current assist rate (which again is likely to improve) he would need just 196 more league games to equal Bergkamp’s assists – that would be achieved in the 2028/29 season. However, if we take Saka’s incredible assists record in the league this season of 1 assist per game, which admittedly will be unrealistic to keep up, he would have it wrapped up by the season after next. It’s very unusual to be having these conversations about a 23 year old, and particularly one who is not a striker when it comes to the goals, but Saka is an unusual talent. Dedicated, industrious and talented, the world is at Saka’s feet. He can become an immortal at the Emirates.