SAK RACE
Bukayo Saka reveals how the ‘pain’ of losing title to Man City last season is fuelling nerve-jangling run-in this term
The England star has also been given advice by boss Mikel Arteta after another on-field kicking
BUKAYO SAKA has vowed Arsenal will not get “frustrated” in their chase of the winning machine that is Manchester City.
The Gunners have won 14 of their 16 Premier League outings this calendar year, losing just once, scoring 51 goals and only conceding eight in the process.
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And yet, the title is out of their hands, with Pep Guardiola’s City a point behind and a game to spare in second place heading into their final three matches of the campaign.
Mikel Arteta’s league leaders could find themselves off the top spot by the time they travel to Manchester United in their penultimate game of the season on Sunday should City beat Fulham at Craven Cottage in Saturday’s early kick-off.
Arsenal are praying for a miracle slip-up from Pep’s four-time Prem champions, but Saka is remaining positive.
He explained: “You can view it in two ways – as frustrating or as a beautiful challenge.
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“Everybody knows they are one of the best teams in the world.
“They have been on top for the past five years, challenging for everything, so far to be up there competing with them is good.
“We are not going to get frustrated. We see it as a challenge. We want to fight until the end and push them the whole way.
“They have set the standard and it’s up to the rest of us to try to be better than them. We just focus on ourselves. That’s all we can do.”
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The memories of last year’s painful collapse – throwing away an eight-point lead on City to end the term five points off the top – will be fresh in the minds of Arteta’s squad.
But Saka added: “The end of last season has made us stronger this year, made us hungrier to try and go a step further. The pain has brought us together.
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“We are all so hungry but also in future years, we want to win. We are young and we have got many more years ahead of us and we’ll have lots of experiences together.”
Horror tackle
Saka was on the end of a horror studs-up tackle by Ryan Christie during their 3-0 win over Bournemouth last weekend – leaving him with a nasty gash on his left shin.
VAR decided not to get involved, with referee David Coote deciding against issuing Christie a card or even awarding a foul.
It is not the first time during his Arsenal career that Saka has been targeted with heavy fouls from opposition players.
But the 22-year-old said: “I just try to get on with it. It’s the hunger to win that keeps me going. That’s why I keep getting up.
“I’m physically much stronger than I was four or five years ago with more experience, and I’m smarter now in terms of knowing which tackles to go through and which ones to jump.”
For the fourth successive season, Saka has surpassed 50 games for club and country and is currently the leading appearance maker in the Arsenal squad with 225 so far.
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Saka added: “It’s big numbers but Mikel has told me that all elite players do that. if I want to be at that level then I need to be ready to play that many games.
“You see the best players in the world doing it so I believe I can do it as well.”
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