When Saka cleverly curled past Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno to double Arsenal‘s lead, it was his first goal for nine games and the first time he had scored and assisted in a Premier League game since November 2024.
Arteta said “I think the pain is gone” – referring to Saka’s Achilles problem – and that it had been “restricting his capacity to deliver certain actions”.
But what was even more promising for Arsenal was that it looked like Saka and striker Viktor Gyokeres had finally clicked.
At times this season it looked like the pair were struggling to form a partnership.
Saka’s role has been tactically tweaked to help Gyokeres, who prefers to run behind the opposition defence rather than link play when building attacks.
Saka has been moving in different ways to make space in the box and has been doing more work outside the area, which has impacted the number of goals he has scored – but not the winger’s influence on games.
However, against Fulham the pair looked on the same wavelength as they assisted each other in the first half.
“I think it was very good on Saturday,” Gyokeres said when speaking before Arsenal play Atletico on Tuesday.
“I think when he is in that form and he is playing like he always is, it is of course amazing for me and all the other guys to have him on the pitch.”
Surprisingly, when Saka crossed for Gyokeres’ opener, it was the first assist he had provided for the Sweden striker in the Premier League.
It was also Saka’s first assist in the top flight since January when Arsenal beat Bournemouth.
Saka’s record for Arsenal is excellent, and he has been directly involved in 150 goals (80 goals, 70 assists) for Arsenal in 308 appearances.
His return to form could not come at a better time with a place in the Champions League final up for grabs against Diego Simeone’s side.
“That’s what we need when we arrive in this stage of the competition,” Arteta said.
“Not only the players to be available but to be in top condition to perform and make the difference – and Bukayo certainly gives us that.”
“I’m trying to be very patient. But we are good and just waiting a little bit.
“We have a few tests in the next few days and then we will see how the injury is and what the next steps will be.”
The 22-year-old, who won clay-court titles in Monte Carle, Rome and Roland Garros and reached the final in Barcelona last season, could lose significant ground to Sinner in the rankings because of the injury.
Italian Sinner reclaimed the number one ranking this month after beating Alcaraz in the Monte Carlo final.
Alcaraz said: “I’d rather come back a little later but in great shape than come back early, rushing around, and unwell.
“God willing, I have a very long career ahead of me, many years, and pushing myself too hard at this Roland Garros could seriously harm me in future tournaments.
“Things happen in the professional world. You have to accept them. I need to recover really well if I don’t want it to affect me later on.”
When Arsenal face Sporting in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday, there will be much more riding on the game than just a knockout match in Lisbon.
For many, this is where the Gunners need to show back-to-back defeats, against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final and the damaging loss to Southampton in the FA Cup quarter-final, will not leak into their European and Premier League campaigns.
Arsenal have been tagged as the ‘nearly men’ under Mikel Arteta with three successive second-placed finishes in the Premier League in the last three seasons.
But the Gunners have played a ruthless style of football this season, which has seen them establish a nine-point lead in the Premier League, reach the final of one cup competition and, depending what happens in two legs against Sporting, at least the quarter-final stage of the two other cup campaigns they began.
Their style of play has been questioned at times but now it is the team’s mentality that is coming under the spotlight.
The Gunners have been so impressive this season that their defeats by City and Saints are the first time they have lost successive matches this campaign, while the loss on the south coast was just the fifth of the season.
But, with the Champions League and Premier League the top prizes for the Gunners, this is where Arteta needs to show the pain of coming so close in precious campaigns is not going to overwhelm his side as they look to win their first major trophy since 2020.
“Have some perspective about how difficult it is what we have done until now,” said Arteta, when asked how he and the team prevent a longer run of defeats.
“Feel the pain, feel the emotion and use it to be better and improve.”
“Trump’s endorsement would be huge,” said Jon Fleischman, a conservative strategist and former executive director of the state GOP.
“Actually,” he went on, ‘I think it would be determinative” — virtually guaranteeing either Hilton or Bianco finished in the top two in the June 2 primary, ushering them past the rope line into November’s runoff.
If there’s an inside edge in the Trump Endorsement Sweepstakes, it would seemingly go to Hilton.
He’s familiar to the president as a former Fox News host. He’s interviewed Trump several times and the two occasionally text and talk on the phone. Bianco has no such personal connection, which might explain his ballot-seizing stunt.
Steve Hilton could have the inside track on a Trump endorsement, given their personal relationship.
A Trump endorsement comes in all sorts of flavors.
As The Downballot recently noted, “His bag of tricks includes dual endorsements, triple endorsements, pre-endorsements, Election Day endorsements, yanking endorsements … belated endorsement of a candidate after initially endorsing just one candidate [and] non-endorsements after promising to endorse.”
There was also the time Trump endorsed “ERIC” when Republicans Eric Schmitt and Eric Greitens faced each other in Missouri’s Senate primary. (Schmitt won and is now the state’s junior U.S. senator.)
Trump’s backing still counts a good deal, even as his approval ratings sink to sub-basement levels. The president remains popular with Republicans and, critically, the kind of GOP loyalists who vote in primary contests, which is why both Hilton and Bianco would welcome a presidential laying on of hands.
There’s good reason, however, to think Trump might pass on endorsing in the governor’s race, or opt to deliver one of his dual he-and-him endorsements.
The GOP’s best — and perhaps only — hope of winning the governorship is the Democratic-freeze-out scenario. So, tactically, Trump’s wisest move may be to bless neither Hilton nor Bianco. Or support both. That would avoid elevating one over the other, which could make it easier for a Democrat to finish among the top two and advance past the June primary.
“I think Trump’s people are smart enough to know that there’s a reason why he may not be served by endorsing a candidate,” Fleischman said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the prevailing wisdom there is we better not endorse anybody, because we don’t want to tilt this one way or the other.”
If Trump were to back Hilton or Bianco, it’s not hard to imagine Democratic interests seizing upon the president’s benediction and putting significant money behind an ad blitz promoting the president’s favorite in hopes of boosting him — and him alone — into the top two.
In 2018, his main rival was fellow Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa. Two major Republicans were also in the race, John Cox and Travis Allen. There was no real concern about those two nabbing both spots in the June primary. Rather, Newsom and Cox had a shared interest in boxing out Villaraigosa.
So the Newsom and Cox campaigns opened a private back-channel, trading gossip, swapping insights on the race and even sharing some empirical data. One poll, showing Cox getting a bigger boost from a Trump endorsement than Allen, passed from Democratic hands in hopes it would reach the White House and nudge the president into supporting Cox.
