A closer look at Bukayo Saka’s impressive form for England and Arsenal

Bukayo Saka’s superb season for club and country continued with a stunning long-range goal in England’s win over Ukraine.

Here, Football Mad looks at the winger’s impressive form.

England

Two minutes after setting up Harry Kane’s opener against Ukraine, Saka received the ball on the half-turn from full-back Kyle Walker and lined up a wonderful curling left-foot shot into the top corner from 20 yards.

That means he now has a goal and an assist to his name in his most recent appearance for both England and Arsenal, for whom he scored twice and set up Gabriel Martinelli in the 4-1 win over Crystal Palace.

It was his eighth international goal, ranking fourth in Gareth Southgate’s reign behind Kane – 50 of whose national-record 55 goals have come under Southgate – Raheem Sterling (18) and Marcus Rashford (14).

Those three players have respectively made 65, 55 and 48 appearances under Southgate to Saka’s 26. Fifth-ranked Harry Maguire has also played 55 times, albeit in central defence, for his seven goals.

Only Dixie Dean, Jimmy Greaves (16 each), Wayne Rooney (12) and Michael Owen (10) had more than his eight England goals at his current age. Rooney, Greaves and Owen are all among England’s top six scorers.

Arsenal

Saka has already recorded the best Premier League and overall goal tallies for a season in his career to date, with 12 in the league and a Europa League winner against Bodo/Glimt plus four for England.

Adding 10 league assists makes him the only player in double figures for both in the Premier League, and the first Arsenal player to achieve that feat since Alexis Sanchez in 2016-17.

He has played a key role in the Gunners’ rise to the top of the table, starting every game and playing 2,410 minutes in total according to the competition’s official statistics – ranking fourth among Arsenal players and 18th league-wide.

He is just one goal behind Martinelli as the club’s leading scorer and has taken more shots than any of his team-mates except captain Martin Odegaard but his influence stretches beyond his attacking output – with 39 tackles made, he ranks behind only midfielder Thomas Partey and defender Ben White for Arsenal.

According to data company WhoScored, Saka is the only player in Europe’s top five leagues to have hit double figures this season for league goals, assists, key passes (61), dribbles (46), tackles and interceptions (13).