Bukayo Saka’s Man City mental block: Arsenal star can end world-class debate by shining at the Etihad

The Gunners winger is clearly an outstanding young talent but he has yet to prove he can shine in the champions’ backyard

Bukayo Saka was buzzing after Arsenal beat Porto to progress to the last eight of the Champions League for the first time since 2010. But what arguably mattered more than the historic nature of the victory was the manner in which it had been achieved.

Arsenal had proved their mettle in a penalty shootout – a satisfying and significant achievement for a squad so often accused of lacking bottle, most infamously after last season’s Premier League title collapse. All of a sudden, the upcoming trip to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City didn’t seem so scary to Saka.

Indeed, when asked in his post-match interview on TNT Sports if Arsenal could win at the home of the champions, he replied, “Yeah, we can. We can.” “Right now, we’re top of the league, we’re into the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and we’re going into the international break,” he pointed out. “So that gives us a lot of momentum, a lot of belief that we can go to the Etihad and get a good result.”

The thing is, though, recent history does not bode well for Arsenal – or indeed Saka making a major statement of intent on Sunday. Mikel Arteta’s men have known nothing but misery at Man City.

One ‘win’ in 10 games against City

Saka has faced City 10 times. Only on one occasion has he come out on the winning side, and that was on penalties in the meaningless Community Shield at the start of the current campaign – and even then only after Arsenal had levelled in the 11th minute of stoppage-time with a weak shot from Leandro Trossard that took a fortuitous deflection off Manuel Akanji.

Saka could claim an assist for that goal but, in truth, he had only played a simple pass to the Belgian wide on the left-hand side of the area. The reality is that he has never created a goal in his nine competitive outings against City – which includes a 5-0 drubbing at the Etihad in August 2021 and only goes to underline just how much one of the most effective wingers in the Premier League has struggled against Pep Guardiola’s side.