After the extended international break, the Champions League is back and gearing up for a rapid run of games. Just over three weeks from now, the league phase will be at its halfway mark, a clearer sense of the European hierarchy having emerged. Then again, we might get a bit of a sense on Tuesday night with several of the big hitters in action.
Both Bayern Munich and Barcelona have games that fall into the tough places to go category. For the former, it's a journey north to Stavanger and the champions of Norway, while Hansi Flick's side will put their winning run to the test at Galatasaray, where the likes of Liverpool and Juventus lost last season. Before we get to them, however, it's time to talk about last season's beaten finalists and their star player.
After all, Bukayo Saka's season seems kinda weird. Weird in that on paper the output looks really rather impressive, particularly in front of goal. Seven games into his campaign and Saka has three goals, one of them a penalty against Sunderland.
For a player who only just scraped into double figures in each of the last two seasons, this should be an encouraging start. And yet it does not feel like Saka has set the Premier League or indeed Europe alight so far, and his performance Saturday against Leeds in the Premier League was the subject of widespread criticism with Arsenal legend David O'Leary saying that the No.7 is "not the player he was," nor the player that earned the £350,000-a-week contract. It's not hard to see where that sentiment is coming from.
As the game was winding down Arsenal's star winger was through one-on-one with Leeds keeper James Trafford. Saka seemed to get the ball stuck under his feet and bent an effort too close to the goalkeeper, whose save at least ensured Leeds only lost by a score of 2-1. As an isolated incident, no harm, no foul.
It's just that Saka keeps missing these chances. Even discounting the penalty he scored, Arsenal's starboy has had a big chance -- a subjective tag applied by Opta to high-value shots -- in every game he has played this season. He has missed the last five of them.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
