Bukayo Saka needs more protection from referees or Arsenal could suffer another Eduardo
It was in the third minute of first-half stoppage time that Bukayo Saka snapped.
The Arsenal winger had been kicked from pillar to post by left-back Alex Moreno for 47 minutes and when Saka was floored by yet another over-zealous challenge, he turned and shoved the tackler, Philippe Coutinho. The reaction was as inevitable as the yellow card for Saka that followed.
This was at Villa Park on Saturday but it might as well have been Goodison last month or any number of other Premier League grounds since Saka emerged as Arsenal’s principal attacking threat.
Some opponents have evidently reasoned that it’s easier to kick him out of a game than go toe to toe. Tricky wideman popping up in space? Try a game of Whack-a-Saka.
To some degree this is to be expected; if you kick a player they are probably going to be less inclined – or less able – to try dribbling past you on again.
Sometimes it works, as at Everton, where Vitaliy Mykolenko was rapping Saka’s ankles from minute one. Sometimes it doesn’t: Arsenal certainly had the last laugh at Villa, where the hosts’ gamesmanship backfired in a late 4-2 defeat.
The point is that referees are letting too much go. Week in week out, Saka is routinely targeted yet he is currently only the 10th most regular recipient of free kicks in the Premier League this season.
If a few more had been given – or if he were keener to buy decisions – he would be up with Wilfried Zaha and Jack Grealish at the top of that list.
If the current situation is maintained, it is a matter of time before Arsenal lose their most dangerous player, potentially derailing their title challenge.
Gunners fans need no reminding that is exactly what happened when Martin Taylor mangled Eduardo da Silva’s leg 15 years ago.
But this isn’t just about Saka and Arsenal; it’s also about Zaha and Crystal Palace, Grealish and Manchester City, the players that people go to matches to watch.
If English football allows them to be singled out for brutal treatment with impunity, it will the wider game that suffers too.
Refereeing is in something of a crisis, with a poor group of officials currently presiding over the Premier League and former whistler Howard Webb brought in to raise standards.
But Webb has a chance to set his own set of priorities and protecting flair players should be high up.