Mikel Arteta issues an interesting challenge to Bukayo Saka

Bukayo Saka is dividing opinion among Arsenal fans right now.

The 25-year-old is the Gunners’ top scorer with three Premier League goals from Arsenal’s opening six games, but his all-round game is being questioned. His decision making in the final third has been uncharacteristically inconsistent and he seems to have lost his burst of pace.

Statistically, though, it is Saka’s best start to a league season, and the nature of the goals he has scored is encouraging. Including his brace for England against Croatia, all four of his open-play efforts this season have been close-range finishes.

He is coming inside and arriving into the six-yard box more intently with a directness and physicality that wasn’t always there in previous campaigns. Mikel Arteta has specifically instructed him to take up more central, aggressive positions, and the early evidence is that it is working.

But speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of Tuesday night’s Champions League clash with Lille, Arteta made clear he wants even more.

“If he misses the chance, so be it,” the Arsenal manager said. “At the end, the more volume we generate, the bigger the probability of him scoring more goals. He has been getting in great positions, getting shots, getting one-touch finishes and tap-ins.

“That is the kind of unpredictability we have with that player. He could have had another four or five goals by now, easily. But if he continues like that, we know they’ll come.”

Arteta has challenged Saka to change his mentality, which in turn, will allow him to score more goals. “When he talks about scoring a certain amount of goals, he needs to be thinking about scoring a certain amount of goals per game. I think the numbers should go to score two or three per game. That’s it. That’s the mindset.

“Because if you go, ‘Twenty goals — OK, now we are in October, I still have eight months to score 17 more goals’, that’s not the mindset. That’s not going to take you there.”

Of course, Arteta won’t expect Saka to literally score two or three goals every game, but that Saka himself should go into each game believing he will. It’s an interesting approach and likely explains the volume of shots Saka is taking on. Fans have been frustrated with his erratic — and perhaps even selfish — decisions in the final third, but it is all with the aim of scoring more goals, which is exactly what people have been wanting from him.

His best season remains 2023-24 with 20 goals in all competitions. Not only does Arteta want him to replicate that but he wants him to exceed it. That is the next evolution of Bukayo Saka.