Video: Mikel Arteta sets target for Arsenal star to score 2-3 goals *per game*
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has admitted he has set Bukayo Saka the target of scoring two or three goals every game.
The England international has started this season looking a little more threatening in front of goal, and taking up more central positions to score more close-range efforts more typically associated with strikers than with wingers.
MORE: Is it time for Arsenal to do the unthinkable and replace Bukayo Saka?
While Arteta has probably been a bit tongue-in-cheek in his interview below with Sky Sports, it seems the Spanish tactician is keen to push Saka to that mindset of trying to become more of a goal machine in the mould of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who also started out as wingers before focusing more on getting into the box.
Discussing Saka’s role, Arteta said: “The closer he’s in around the box, shorter distances, closer to the goal. We know the outcome of that and generating volume of these kind of actions is going to only increase his numbers and the impact on the team.”
When asked if he’s set the 25-year-old any goal targets, the Gunners boss responded: “Two or three per game and the contribution has to be that you go with that mindset every time to the pitch or in training. I think you’re going to going to like at the end of the season what happens.”
Are we about to see Bukayo Saka 2.0?
Saka has had a great career at Arsenal, and he’s still a big fan favourite for the role he’s played in helping the club get back to the top.
Still, there’s also no doubt that Saka wasn’t actually that much at his best for most of last season when Arteta’s side finally ended their title drought.
Injuries have been a bit of a problem for Saka, and he’s also just played a lot of football for one so relatively young.
If Arsenal can now kill two birds with one stone by moving Saka into a more central role, it could be ideal to take this team forwards.
AFC lack a player who can reliably score 25 or more goals a season, so if Saka can take that pressure off the likes of Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz to be the team’s main goal-scorers.
