Bukayo Saka has experienced a meteoric rise since bursting onto the scene with Arsenal in 2019, becoming one of the club's most important players and also starring for England.
And in just his second Premier League start back in 2019, Saka made a real impression on Roy Keane as he provided the assist for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's equaliser against Manchester United. Saka made history that day as the youngest player to start a Premier League match between the two great rivals at just 18 years and 125 days.
And Keane suggested after the game that the teenager looked more like a new £72m signing than Nicolas Pepe, who remains the club's record signing. At the time, Keane said on Sky Sports: "Disappointed really with him [Pepe], since he's come to the club he's not had great body language.
"We make excuses for players a lot, it takes time to settle into a club. But you see this young kid tonight [Saka], Pepe compared to him for the money they paid he needs to do a lot more.
"His work rate, his lack of quality, end product, but again it's his body language. He didn't put up a fight tonight." And Keane's comments have been proved spot on, with Saka making more goal contributions last season than any other Arsenal player (25) as they finished second in the league.
The 21-year-old has also signed a bumper new contract that will keep him at the Emirates until 2027, while Pepe is expected to leave Arsenal this summer having been shipped out on loan to Nice last season. Reports also claim that Arsenal may even terminate his contract in order to get rid of him, with the 28-year-old among their highest earners.
Saka, meanwhile, was branded "exceptional" by England boss Gareth Southgate after scoring his first senior hat-trick in their 7-0 thrashing of North Macedonia. "He's had [an Achilles issue] for a few weeks and it's an injury that just needs managing, but it would have been easy not to appear," Southgate said after the game.
"I think when you then have probably one of the best nights of your life, it's a reminder to everybody that it's worth going through those things. To see the joy on his face, he's such a popular member of the team and so humble, works incredibly hard and, of course, talented.
"He's been finishing like that all week, so, yeah, it was an outstanding performance. When he broke into the team at Arsenal, what struck us was that in a team that were having a difficult time he was performing at a really high level,"
"Then when the team were playing well he was still a key player and performing at a really high level. So, that says a lot about his mentality, his ability to deal with pressure and that’s the environment that we’re in all the time. He's exceptional to work with.
