In this world nothing is certain except death and taxes. The famous quote by Benjamin Franklin is well known. But for Arsenal fans you could probably add another part to that great quote - Bukayo Saka being booted into the air by opposition defenders.
Last season Villa Park was where Saka came in for criticism for daring to ask for protection from the referees, with Steven Gerrard criticising the youngster after the game for not being tough enough to have pins in his hips. This time around, the treatment was just as harsh, but the reaction was different.
While last year, Saka was jovial in conversations with Andy Madley as he left the pitch at half time, this time he was furious. After one particularly hefty challenge from Philippe Coutinho, the 21-year-old reacted uncharacteristically by shoving the former Liverpool man sparking a mass brawl. After spending most of the match walking wounded, you can hardly blame him.
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Saka's latest hacking has led to calls from Oleksandr Zinchenko for the England international to receive more protection from officials. "Bukayo is an unbelievable player, all the full backs from the other teams know he’s so dangerous, so they try to provoke him, tackle him and the referees should know this," the Ukrainian said after the match.
"We can speak about Messi, Cristiano, Neymar and players like this. The referees need to protect this kind of player. Apart from Bukayo, we have other front players who are so dangerous and the referees need to be careful, they need to look after them of course."
Somewhat surprisingly though, Mikel Arteta was less forthright in his response to questions over the way officials are handling Saka. The Spaniard has been visibly furious on the touchline at times this season, but after the clash at Villa Park he seemed to view the hefty tackles as being simply unavoidable.
"He’s fine," Arteta said when asked about Saka's fitness after the game. "He got kicked quite a lot today again. But he’s going to have to deal with that, not every week, but every three days and sometimes in training as well because it’s his game and teams are not stupid and they want to stop him. That’s why we need to protect him."
The Arsenal boss has previously insisted that it is on Arsenal as a team to protect Saka with the kind of passes they give him. With 17 goal involvements in his last 19 games it's certainly true that the Gunners can't afford to lose him to injury.
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