Rio Ferdinand singles out ‘unplayable’ Arsenal star after Chelsea draw | Football

Rio Ferdinand says there have been signs of Bukayo Saka returning to his ‘unplayable’ best in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea and ‘anything could possibly be possible’ for the forward within the second half of the season.

Top-of-the-table Arsenal prolonged their unbeaten run within the Premier League to 10 games after Mikel Merino cancelled out Trevoh Chalobah’s header in scrappy game containing few clear-cut possibilities at Stamford Bridge.

Moises Caicedo’s sending off left the Gunners with a person advantage at the top of the primary half, but it surely was hosts Chelsea that made the breakthrough just three minutes into the second period.

Saka played an instrumental role within the visitors finding an equaliser, leaving Marc Cucurella in a twist before turning and providing the cross for makeshift centre-forward Merino, who headed beyond Robert Sanchez from close range.

While Saka has netted thrice within the English top flight this season, his assist for Merino on Sunday was the primary he had registered in precisely a 12 months.

He’ll little question be desperate to choose up where he left off when Arsenal return to motion at home to Brentford on Wednesday night.

‘When he’s on it he looks unplayable,’ former Manchester United and England defender Ferdinand said of Saka on his Rio Ferdinand Presents YouTube channel.

‘He’s got that strength like Mohamed Salah. He’s small in frame and size whenever you have a look at him, but do you ever see him get pushed off the ball? Especially when he’s got his back to play and get the ball side-on.

‘You don’t really see people take the ball off him or put him on his arse. He’s a robust little guy.

‘I all the time consider Joleon Lescott after I watch Saka because he says, “Listen, he makes the precise decision at the precise time 99 per cent of the time”… he passes it when he should, he passes it longer when he should, he shoots when he should, he creates a one-vs-one when he should and he crosses when he should.’

In keeping with Ferdinand, the sky is the limit for what Saka and Arsenal could achieve within the back-end of the campaign.

‘He’s very efficient and really effective and it’s a really nice assist,’ Ferdinand – a six-time Premier League winner with Manchester United – added.

‘He’s one among those players that if he starts coming into form at the precise time of the season, anything could possibly be possible with this Arsenal team.

‘I feel he’s that necessary because he’s that impactful.’

Ferdinand is confident Arsenal will likely be satisfied to come back away from the derby with some extent, even bearing in mind Caicedo’s sending off towards the top of the primary half.

‘If I went back into my head and the way I’d be feeling after the sport within the changing room, a game of that magnitude, top-of-the-table clash, Arsenal would have taken a draw before the sport,’ he explained.

‘Should you spoke to Declan Rice and the boys in that dressing room before the sport and asked, “Should you could walk out of Stamford Bridge, no matter what happens across the 90 minutes, with some extent right away, would you are taking it?”, I feel they’d all have said yes.

‘So no matter what’s gone on and, yeah, Chelsea went all the way down to ten men… sometimes it’s much harder playing against ten men as everyone drops behind the ball, there’s no spaces, and funnily enough, Chelsea went 1-0 up with ten men.

‘But I don’t think this affects anything with Arsenal. They haven’t lost, they maintained that, which is great, they’re still on a very good streak, they’ve been in relentless form, blistering form, banging goals in.

‘They’ve also modified that narrative within the last couple of weeks from being a set-piece, Tony Pulis, Big Sam [Allardyce]-inspired team to being a team that may play, create possibilities and rating goals.’

All in all, Ferdinand reckons it has been a ‘wonderful’ fortnight for Arsenal, each domestically and in Europe.

‘I feel they’ve had a beautiful couple of weeks in constructing that momentum and that belief,’ he went on.

‘After that game against Bayern Munich within the week, I’m going to go so far as to say that there are teams going up against Arsenal which can be more fearful than anything about getting rolled over and so they’re probably walking into that game going, “How will we beat these? How will we match these physically? How will we match them when it comes to the ball retention? How will we get the ball off them? How will we defend against them at set-pieces?”

‘I feel teams are going into games against Arsenal and so they’re beginning to ask themselves more questions than we’ve seen, even within the last three or 4 seasons.’

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