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

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

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

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

Saka played an instrumental role in 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 three times in the English top flight this season, his assist for Merino on Sunday was the first he had registered in exactly a year.

He will no doubt be desperate to pick up where he left off when Arsenal return to action 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 when you 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 strong little guy.

‘I always think of Joleon Lescott when I watch Saka because he says, “Listen, he makes the right decision at the right 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.’

According to Ferdinand, the sky is the limit for what Saka and Arsenal could achieve in the back-end of the campaign.

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

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

‘I think he’s that important because he’s that impactful.’

Ferdinand is confident Arsenal will be satisfied to come away from the derby with a point, even taking into account Caicedo’s sending off towards the end of the first half.

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

‘If you spoke to Declan Rice and the boys in that dressing room before the game and asked, “If you could walk out of Stamford Bridge, regardless of what happens across the 90 minutes, with a point right now, would you take it?”, I think they’d all have said yes.

‘So regardless of what’s gone on and, yeah, Chelsea went 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 good streak, they’ve been in relentless form, blistering form, banging goals in.

‘They’ve also changed that narrative in the last couple of weeks from being a set-piece, Tony Pulis, Big Sam [Allardyce]-inspired team to being a team that can play, create chances and score goals.’

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

‘I think they’ve had a wonderful couple of weeks in building that momentum and that belief,’ he went on.

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

‘I think teams are going into games against Arsenal and they’re starting to ask themselves more questions than we’ve seen, even in the last three or four seasons.’

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