Interview

Saka – Why I combine so well with Nketiah

Saka

Bukayo Saka delivered yet another man-of-the-match performance on Monday night as we ran out 5-1 winners over Manchester City.

The 17-year-old winger scored two on the night, meaning he’s now struck seven goals and assisted eight in all competitions this season.

We spoke to Saka after the final whistle - and this is what he said.

on the first-half performance…

We just stuck to the gameplan that Freddie gave us at the start of the game. Recently we’ve tried to do that a lot and I think we did that well today. We scored three very good goals so I’m proud of the first-half performance.

on players returning from injury…

It gives us a lot of confidence that we’ve got top quality players coming back into the squad. It gives us a massive boost, especially as they’re two attacking players (Robbie Burton and Xavier Amaechi). It gives use a lot more creativity up top so we can go and score more goals.

on playing with Nketiah…

I think we both have a lot of pace so it pushes teams back more. Then if teams do play a high line, we can get in behind it. We create so many chances for each other and I feel like we bring the best out of each other.

on conceding so soon after the break…

Freddie told us to start sharp and we didn’t! We managed to get going after but we need to just focus at the start and go long if we have to, as long as we don’t make silly mistakes like that.

on his two goals…

I’m happy with the first one on the weak foot. I’ve just cut in and thought that I’m going to put it far post, and it’s gone there, so I’m proud of that. For the second one I’ve taken it well with my left foot and it was a good pass from Joe, so I’m happy with both of my goals.

on Ljungberg barking orders at him after his second goal…

He was proud of me, he was just talking about an incident before where I pressed and almost got the ball, which would have given us a counter-attack. But we managed to score anyway so we’re happy.

on which first-team players are helping him to develop most…

When we do finishing drills with Lacazette, Aubameyang and Iwobi you can just see the finishing and the quality that they have. I just want to be like them so every time I’m there I just try to learn from the best, especially in my position because I can take a lot from them.