Bukayo Saka was likened to peak Lionel Messi after he scored one and made another in Arsenal’s comprehensive opening day win over Wolves.
The England forward, looking surprisingly fresh so soon after representing his country in the final of the Euros in Germany last month was one of manager Mikel Arteta’s stand out players.
He cut in from the right to curl an inch-perfect cross for Kai Havertz to head arsenal into a first half lead and executed a similar to move to create space for himself to score with a left-foot power drive deep into the second half.
Arteta was asked afterwards why defenders always struggled to stop such a familiar action from the young Londoner.
The Spanish coach smiled and said: “With good players, it’s like that. With Messi I know he’s gonna come here and put the ball there, but he does it all the time. You can’t stop him. That’s the quality of the players.
“We generated a lot. Probably should have scored two or three and the game would have been different.
“Second half we were sloppy in moments and didn’t control some giveaway inside, which against this team in particular can be difficult. Then the game was a bit more open. Then Bukayo has an unbelievable action to score the second and it wasn’t a different game.”
Saka started alongside fellow European Championship stars David Raya and Declan Rice, who suffered with cramp late on after a truncated pre-season build-up.
Arteta was clearly delighted but not overly surprised by how well his internationals showed up on opening day.
He concluded: “I’m not surprised. That was their mentality straight away after the last game they said I’m gonna be ready for the first game. I spoke to them after the summer, and tried to arrange a plan.
“They wanted to come back and be here early. They were already getting prepared when they were on holidays. This is the mentality that we need. If players are doing that compromise it will grow around the team and they will step up the level. That’s what we need.”
