Arsenal star Bukayo Saka and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah are the two best wingers in the Premier League.
The Egyptian has been incredible for the Reds since he joined them, and even though he hasn’t been on fire this term, everyone still sees him as a superstar.
Saka, on the other hand, is one of the pillars of the Arsenal project under Mikel Arteta. He is levels above where Salah was at this age and is destined to be a superstar – more so than he already is.
But what separates them right now?
Danny Murphy explains the only difference between Bukayo Saka and Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah is a Liverpool legend and will definitely get into the Premier League Hall of Fame one day.
The Egypt international has consistently been incredible for the Merseyside giants and is the biggest reason behind their success over the years.
Bukayo Saka, on the other hand, is still a fair distance away because he hasn’t won the big titles yet, but Danny Murphy has noticed another difference.
The pundit has explained that the Arsenal man doesn’t produce the numbers that Salah does – not because he isn’t capable, but because Arteta does not give him the freedom that his Liverpool counterpart gets.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Murphy said: “The only thing, the difference is with Saka if you’re comparing to Salah because Salah’s numbers are obviously way better, Saka has to do more defending.
“He’s part of a team. He’s not allowed to just be a luxury. He’s not allowed to be the star. He has to do all that work going back. He has to do the pressing. Salah doesn’t.
“That’s a big difference. Any forward will tell you that.”
Bukayo Saka has already made his feelings clear about defending
Murphy is right, Saka does a lot of work defensively for Arsenal. It is something that not many people notice while they are critiquing his performance.
However, Arsenal legend Thierry Henry pointed this out while speaking to Saka last year, and the Gunners’ number seven admitted that he would like to stay up the pitch like Salah does.
He said, as per TBR Football: “It’s good that you noticed that because the attackers are doing a lot of work for the clean sheets. But, of course, we have to do our job to help out the defenders; it’s not easy.
“As an attacking player, I want to be up the pitch and save my legs for the transition, but when I look at the results this season, we have a lot of clean sheets, and it shows that it’s working.”
Arteta places great emphasis on defending as a team, so we don’t think Saka will get the freedom that Salah does anytime soon.
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