English Premier League: Why only a geometry master can stop irresistible Bukayo Saka

It’s a scene we are seeing played out with increasing regularity this season: Bukayo Saka, ball at his feet, a left back before him, both waiting for the burst of instinct that will determine what comes next.

Saka is in the form of his life, a candidate for player of the season. The Arsenal winger’s latest performance, in the 3-2 victory over Manchester United on Sunday, underlined what can happen if you afford the 21-year-old too much space – his fine strike for Arsenal’s second goal was his seventh of the season – and why a full back of Luke Shaw’s calibre feels compelled to do so.

Before we continue, I must make one thing clear. When you’re asked to write a piece exploring how, as a defender, you might stop Saka in this form, the answer – particularly as a left back who never reached the rarefied heights of the Premier League – always comes from a place of theory rather than practice.

But let’s start with those three touches. When Saka has you stood up like that, in or around the penalty area, and he’s nudging the ball forward, he’s got you where he wants you. As a defender, you’re always assessing the dangers. And danger No 1 is clear: Saka cuts inside, with the outside of his left foot, whips in a cross or, as he did against United, finds the bottom corner of the net.

Danger No 2: Saka pushes the ball down the line and flashes a cross across goal with his right foot – the Tottenham Hotspur wingback Ryan Sessegnon’s abject attempt to stop Saka in the build-up to Hugo Lloris’s own goal in the recent north London derby is an example of the danger of leaving him too much space on the outside.

Neither of these options, for a defender, is all that appealing. But to compound matters, Saka can beat you another way too. He can beat you outside-in: skip down the line, push the ball inside, wriggle across your frame, and leave you out of the game completely or at risk of conceding a penalty.

Think of poor Dan Burn in the first five minutes of Arsenal’s goalless draw with Newcastle United. Saka bounded down the line, then scurried across the byline and Burn was left grasping at air. Burn eventually got to grips with his opponent and, with considerable help from Joelinton, the diligent Newcastle winger, suffocated Saka about as much as anyone has done this season.

Shaw was widely criticised for giving Saka too much space on Sunday. But sometimes you need help. Shaw didn’t have Joelinton. He didn’t have the wily Casemiro – who was suspended – offering support on his shoulder either. In front of him was Marcus Rashford, United’s biggest attacking threat, not someone who will dedicate 90 minutes to protecting the full back. So sometimes the calculation you have to make as a defender is between the threat posed by being beaten by the winger and the danger of a cross into the area.

About 90 per cent of defending is about positioning. The other 10 per cent – making a tackle, challenge or interception – comes with far greater risk. Yet even as you attempt to delay, marshal or usher him away from goal, Saka is adept at finding a chink in your armour. He’ll move you, repeat those nudges and dummies several times in succession. Feint to cross with his left and … chop back toward the byline. Nudge, nudge nudge … feint to cross again and … chop. Nudge, nudge, nudge. Again and again.

Every time Saka manipulates the ball like this, as a defender you have to adjust your body accordingly. Recalculate the angles and space around you. Misjudge them by a fraction – the distance between you and the ball, the angle between you and the goal, the space to your left or right, the support (or lack of it) around you – and Saka springs through that window of opportunity in an instant. Shaw miscalculated those angles and spaces more and more as the game progressed, but he is not the only player to whom that has happened.

And that is because the danger posed by Saka’s speed underpins everything. Many of the challenges outlined above are confronted in and around the penalty area. Just as frequently, Saka collects the ball at speed around the halfway line, cushions it beautifully into his path with the outside of his left foot, barely breaking stride, then gallops towards you.

If, as a full back, you get tight to Saka higher up the pitch, he can beat you without the need for a dummy or trick. The phase of play for that own goal by Lloris began with a simple ball in behind Sessegnon by Thomas Partey. Saka made a perfectly timed, arcing run in behind the Spurs wingback. Ten seconds later Arsenal were 1-0 ahead.

Saka is the youngster sitting on an inflatable unicorn. The youngster who talks about wanting to have fun on the pitch. He transmits that sense of joy too. But the fear he is inducing in defenders is growing. It could help Arsenal to lift the league title.

-The Times

Originally published as English Premier League: Why only a geometry master can stop irresistible Bukayo Saka