Bukayo Saka is the biggest victim of Arsenal's transfer failures

Long gone are the days of 87 consecutive appearances as another injury blow takes its toll on the player and squad

Let us wind the clock back three years.

Arsenal are away at Lens in the Champions League. They have been beaten 2-1 and Mikel Arteta is fielding questions on why he started Bukayo Saka, who limped off inside the first half.

Saka had been forced off after taking a kick to his foot against Tottenham ten days earlier. He still started a week on from that against Bournemouth, when again he then had to be withdrawn prematurely. Despite that double injury scare, here was Saka's name once more in the starting lineup three days later in France.

"He was perfectly fine," declared Arteta, doing a decent impersonation of the Black Knight in Monty Python.

That was but a scratch and those were both but a knock. And yet, just over half an hour into the match against Lens, down Saka went again and off he went again for the third match in a row.

That thigh issue proved not to be serious but it did keep him out of the following match against Manchester City. His absence ended an extraordinary club-record run of 87 consecutive appearances in the Premier League.

As much as it was hailed as a triumph of durability, that streak felt like an uncomfortable demand at the time and even more so now, three years and 11 injuries later.

Bukayo Saka is sidelined once again after sustaining a quad injury during Arsenal’s 2-2 draw against Bayern Munich

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In the 2022-23 season, Saka started 37 of 38 league matches, one more than the previous campaign. In the only match he did not start, Arteta brought him on for half an hour despite Arsenal being 3-0 up against Leeds.

It was understandable to an extent. Saka was in many ways the face of that Arsenal side and the club suddenly found themselves competing for Premier League titles. Arsenal needed Saka on the pitch to have any hope of success.

However, he could still have been far better managed. Of those 37 starts, Saka played the full 90 minutes in 26 of them. He was replaced before the 70th minute just twice, one of which was forced by injury.

That same season, Saka started in the third round of the FA Cup against Oxford United and featured in every Europa League match too. His body was given no opportunity to rest. Even when Arsenal led 2-0 at home to Bodo/Glimt, Saka was introduced on the hour mark.

A season later, Saka started all 35 of the 38 league matches he was fit for. He came off before the 70th minute only four times.

It has been a failure of recruitment from the club, too. Saka has played so much in part because Arteta simply has not trusted the alternative options available to him.

Arsenal's signings on the right wing since the summer of 2020 have been Willian, Fabio Vieira, Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke. For a club that has been in the thick of a title race for four straight years, that is remarkably poor.

Saka has played so much in part because Arteta simply has not trusted the alternative options available to him

Madueke, clearly, was a significant upgrade on those other additions. It showed last season with Arteta's team selections. Very rarely did Saka start three times in a week, a marked difference from previous campaigns.

However, the damage had really already been done. As Arteta himself admitted last week about Saka's robustness, "it’s certainly been different in the last year or so". That is no great surprise. Saka has been pushed to the brink from a young age and now the consequences are being paid.

By the time he had turned 22, Saka had already made 212 senior appearances for club and country. On his 22nd birthday, Lionel Messi had 200 matches under his belt.

Saka missed chunks of last season with Achilles and hip injuries. The season before that, he was out for more than 100 days after hamstring surgery. Now he faces at least six weeks on the sidelines with a quad problem.

Since the start of the 2023-24 season, Saka has missed 48 matches due to injury. Before that point in his career, he had been absent for only three.

Despite the run of injuries, it does not feel like lessons have been particularly learned, by Arsenal or England.

After a World Cup that was hampered by an ongoing Achilles problem, Saka then had just seven days completely off over the summer before he started training again. He returned to Arsenal for the start of his pre-season ahead of schedule.

As much as Saka was desperate to hit the ground running and get back for his club, that was the time to protect him from himself as much as anything and insist on an extended break.

Bukayo Saka featured in all but one of England’s Nations League matches during the autumn break

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While Declan Rice pulled out of the England squad for the last international break to manage his workload, Saka started three matches in a week.

That included the full 90 minutes in a 7-0 win over Croatia. Was Thomas Tuchel learning anything more about Saka by keeping him on for the full match?

Arteta often views availability as a mental issue as much as a physical one. He wants players who declare themselves fit and push through the pain barrier, with the mindset of putting it all on the line for the club.

"Look at the top players in the world," Arteta stated in 2022, dismissing suggestions Saka needed to be better protected.

"They play 70 matches, every three days and make the difference and win the game. You want to be at the top, you have to be able to do that.

"There is not a fitness coach in the world who is going to tell me that they cannot do it because I’ve seen it.“

Arteta's use of Saka over the past seven years shows that no fitness coach has been able to tell him that. The desperation to play Saka at every opportunity has come at a cost. Those opportunities to play him have been diminished.