Mikel Arteta challenged Bukayo Saka to start scoring "two or three goals per game" before Arsenal's meeting with Lille. The winger clearly was listening. He only needed six minutes to find the net.
And that was after providing an assist with his first touch. The Arsenal boss was asked if his comments had served as motivation. "If that's the case, I'm very happy and I welcome it," he said with a smile, before revealing he had joked to Saka about "killing him" in his press conference before Tuesday's game.
Arteta was acknowledging that he had set Saka a borderline impossible target but the 25-year-old's game-changing appearance from the bench showed he is at least willing to have a crack at it. Saka's focus appears streamlined to one thing: goals. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player His 71st-minute strike against Lille was his fourth in all competitions this season.
There have been another two on international duty with England. And his overall total could easily be higher. Saka missed one-on-one chances against both Napoli and Leeds.
"If he misses the chance, so be it," Arteta said after the win over Leeds. "In the end, the more volume we generate, the bigger the probability of him scoring more goals. He is doing well and he could have had another four or five goals by now, easily." His goal against Lille, swept home from Kai Havertz's cut-back, was his third this season to have been scored from either in or just outside the six-yard box.
There has been a focus on getting him into more dangerous goalscoring positions and it is paying off. The underlying data supports Arteta's comments about Saka's increased volume of chances. In the Premier League this season, he is averaging nearly twice as many open-play expected goals per 90 minutes as in any previous season for Arsenal, at 0.50.
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