Mikel Arteta warned he will limit Bukayo Saka\u2019s load after the winger was withdrawn as a precaution at half-time of Saturday\u2019s win over Fulham. Saka had started but was taken off after 45 minutes in the league victory, having recently returned from an injury absence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to,\u201d the Arsenal boss admitted. \u201cHe played 30-odd minutes in Madrid, now he\u2019s played 45 minutes. We need to ramp up his load but we need to be careful because we need him on that pitch.\u201d The remarks offered reassurance to supporters ahead of Tuesday\u2019s Champions League second leg against Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, with the tie level at 1\u20131.<\/p>\n
Saka\u2019s return has coincided with a goal drought among Arsenal\u2019s wide players. After his match-winning first-half contribution on Saturday he was replaced by Noni Madueke. The summer recruit enjoyed a bright start while filling in but has struggled for end product after extended minutes. Noni Madueke has not registered a goal or an assist against top-flight opposition since heading in the opener of a 1\u20131 draw with Brentford on Feb. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Leandro Trossard may have created Gy\u00f6keres\u2019s third goal against Fulham, but he is still waiting for his first strike of 2026; his last goal against top-flight opposition came on Dec. 30, 2025 versus Aston Villa. Gabriel Martinelli has gone more than three months without finding the net, his most recent goal against top-flight opposition coming on Jan. 28, 2026 versus Kairat.<\/p>\n
During those scoring droughts for Arsenal\u2019s wide players, Saka missed 10 matches through injury, which made his return particularly welcome. \u201cWe know what he\u2019s capable of,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cHe\u2019s come back in the most important period of the season and now he\u2019s fresh, his mind is fresh, his hunger is at the highest possible height and I think he needed a performance like that to impact the team, so that\u2019s a big platform for Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saka\u2019s 22-minute cameo in the first leg in Madrid was described as a struggle to find the speed of the contest, and there is hope he will fare better with a start at the Emirates. Availability questions remain elsewhere: Martin \u00d8degaard missed Saturday\u2019s league outing after reportedly suffering from knee discomfort during the first leg against Atl\u00e9tico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta will manage Saka’s minutes ahead of Tuesday’s second leg as Arsenal carry a 1\u20131 tie. on Tues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303],"tags":[1305,1304,826],"class_list":["post-13592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","tag-bench-selection","tag-benching","tag-bukayo-saka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}