Who is Arsenal's player of the season?


Bukayo Saka


Who is Arsenal's player of the season?

By Alec McQuarrie

As the season draws to a close and Arsenal look to be in the driving seat to secure Champions League football for next season, it’s time to decide who has been the Gunners’ standout player.


And it’s not a simple decision.


Martin Odegaard, Aaron Ramsdale and Ben White could all stake a claim, having been exceptional in their own ways.


Odegaard has offered a level of creativity and guile not seen since Mesut Ozil fell out of favour.

But the Norwegian has been found guilty of drifting out of matches and only truly revealed his top form from November onwards.


Aaron Ramsdale, despite his under-par post-shot xG numbers – measuring the likelihood of a save from each shot on target – has imbued confidence in his defence that was sorely missing with Bernd Leno in net.


His distribution has also been a revelation and is key to any Arsenal keeper’s repertoire.


Eyebrows were raised at the £50m paid for Ben White, but as Virgil Van Dijk has proved, sometimes quality comes with a high price.


His quality on the ball was evident before he signed but he has shown himself to be a fantastic all-round defender who seems to be improving day by day.


However, it is hard to look past last season’s player of the season: Bukayo Saka.


The 20-year-old has seemingly taken all aspects of his game to another level.


With the goals drying up for Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang moving to Barcelona, Saka has filled the void.


He is Arsenal’s top-scorer with 11 goals as things stand, and only Lacazette (7) has provided more assists than the winger (6) in the league this season.


He’s outperformed his xG by two, in contrast to a two-goal deficit in the same stat last year.

The focus on increasing his tally is clear from his total of 84 shots, almost double that of next highest Thomas Partey (44).


From a creation point of view, Saka is clear of the rest too.


No one has made more shot-creating actions, goal-creating actions and expected assists, while only Odegaard has made more key passes.


What’s more, one thing that might surprise fans is how key Saka has been to Arsenal’s defence.


Once again, only Odegaard has more pressures and successful pressures than the Englishman.


And finally, he leads the squad for successful dribbles, 45, and nutmegs with seven.


It really has been an outstanding season for Saka who is undoubtedly Arsenal’s player of the season.


Picture credit: Getty Images

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