Saka has had at least one direct goal involvement in every game he’s played for us this season except for the 1-0 win at Palace.
He’s had a total of 12 direct goal involvements which represents 52% of the goals Arsenal have scored in games featuring Saka and 57% of the goals Arsenal have scored while Saka was on the pitch (2 goals - against PSV and Bournemouth - were scored after Saka had been subbed off with Arsenal already leading 3-0).
The two games he didn’t play were both 1-0 wins (Brentford in the League Cup and Man City), so Saka has been directly involved in 48% of Arsenal’s total goals this season, including those scored in games he didn’t play.
Personally, I don’t think this is because of anything Saka is doing. He’s been playing very well, as usual, but the fact Arsenal are depending on him so heavily for goal contributions reflects the fact that our other attacking players have been much less dangerous than we would like.
What needs to be done to remove this burden from Saka and ensure we don’t become a one-man attacking team?
I see our problem as having a poor conversion rate. We are missing too many chances, whether it is Kai misfiring, Martinelli crossing with no one in the box, Jesus kicking it over. None of them are sitters but we simply are not scoring as many as we should and that is killing us.
We’re slightly outperforming our xG, which would suggest that shot conversion isn’t the problem. Although I agree, we have quite a few attacking players who struggle to be clinical
I don’t think XG includes the issues we are having. We have not had a real striker that was prolific in a long time and while it is great that Mø, Gabbi and Saka had so many goals and assists last year, it clearly wasn’t enough.