Bukayo Saka has been in scintillating form this season - and against Manchester City he created a little bit of Premier League history to back that form up.
Our winger’s devilish corner to allow Gabriel to power home a header was his fifth assist of the campaign already, with one coming in each of our opening five games so far.
And that streak saw him draw level with Thierry Henry in the league’s best-ever runs of assists at the start of a season, with the Frenchman doing so in colours back in 2004/05 when he too set up a teammate in each of our first five matches:
| Henry's run | SAKA'S RUN | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Opponent | Assisted | Date | Opponent | Assisted |
| 15/08/04 | Everton | Bergkamp, Ljungberg | 17/08/24 | Wolves | Havertz |
| 22/08/04 | Middlesbrough | Pires | 24/08/24 | Aston Villa | Partey |
| 25/08/04 | Blackburn | Reyes | 31/08/24 | Brighton | Havertz |
| 28/08/04 | Norwich | Reyes, Bergkamp | 15/09/24 | Tottenham | Gabriel |
| 11/09/04 | Fulham | Ljungberg | 22/09/24 | Man City | Gabriel |
One more for Bukayo against Leicester City would give him the record outright, and also put him within touching distance of an even better one. Mesut Ozil holds the league - and thus club - high of consecutive appearances with an assist, which came back in 2015/16:
| Start of Run | End of Run | Player | Team | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26/09/15 | 21/11/15 | Mesut Ozil | Arsenal | 7 |
| 20/04/11 | 13/09/14 | Cesc Fabregas | Arsenal (2) / Chelsea (4) | 6 |
| 17/08/24 | Ongoing | Bukayo Saka | Arsenal | 5 |
| 09/04/23 | 30/04/23 | Trent Alexander-Arnold | Liverpool | 5 |
| 03/10/21 | 07/11/21 | Mohamed Salah | Liverpool | 5 |
| 20/09/20 | 26/10/20 | Harry Kane | Tottenham | 5 |
| 21/04/19 | 09/08/19 | Trent Alexander-Arnold | Liverpool | 5 |
| 10/12/11 | 31/12/11 | Antonio Valencia | Man Utd | 5 |
| 15/08/04 | 11/09/04 | Thierry Henry | Arsenal | 5 |
| 15/03/03 | 16/04/03 | Ryan Giggs | Man Utd | 5 |
| 09/11/02 | 07/12/02 | Gianfranco Zola | Chelsea | 5 |
| 30/01/93 | 27/02/93 | Darren Anderton | Tottenham | 5 |
To put Bukayo’s current achievement into context, his previous longest run of games with an assist was two matches which he achieved six times, and when you look at our club-wide longest runs, he’s in some fine company:
| Start of Run | End of Run | Player | Games |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26/09/15 | 21/11/15 | Mesut Ozil | 7 |
| 17/08/24 | Ongoing | Bukayo Saka | 5 |
| 15/08/04 | 11/09/04 | Thierry Henry | 5 |
| 15/04/14 | 04/05/14 | Santi Cazorla | 4 |
| 16/10/11 | 05/11/11 | Gervinho | 4 |
| 14/11/10 | 04/12/10 | Andrey Arshavin | 4 |
| 24/04/02 | 18/08/02 | Dennis Bergkamp | 4 |
His five set-ups ensure he leads the Premier League’s assist charts this term, one ahead of Cole Palmer and Mohammed Salah, while his six goal involvements out of our eight netted mean he's played a part in 75% of our domestic goals this term - only Adam Lallana (2/2, 100%) and Erling Haaland (10/13, 77%) can boast more of an influence on their sides.
And with Gabriel benefiting from his superb set-pieces twice in the past two league games, the Brazilan centre-back is now only behind Gabriel Martinelli in terms of the players Bukayo has helped get on the scoresheet most since he made his debut in the division back in 2019/20, with that total now standing at 40:
| Player | Assists |
| Gabriel Martinelli | 6 |
| Gabriel | 5 |
| Leandro Trossard | 4 |
| Kai Havertz | 4 |
| Alexandre Lacazette | 3 |
| Martin Odegaard | 3 |
| Emile Smith Rowe | 3 |
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