Mikel Arteta says Bukayo Saka will stay on penalty duty for Arsenal despite his miss against West Ham.
After a run of four successful spot-kicks in the Premier League, the winger failed to find the net for the first time since the final of the European Championships when Italy’s Gianluigi Donnarumma saved his effort in the penalty shootout.
Last Sunday’s miss proved to be particularly costly for the Gunners who subsequently conceded an equaliser inside two minutes and after the game, the player took to social media to apologise to supporters promising he’ll “do everything I can to make it right.”
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“That’s the way he is,” said Arteta when asked about the player’s obvious disappointment.
“He loves responsibility but as well, he puts a lot on his shoulders.
“Again, if he had any doubt about how much people love him, respect him and admire him at the club, he had a very overwhelming reaction from everybody in the building and the club.
“I think at the end, it can become something very positive that can give him a big lift because everybody reacted in an unbelievable way towards him because he deserves it, because of the way he is.”
Pressed on whether Saka will retain the spot-kick responsibility, he joked, “Yes! If not, I will go on the pitch and throw him the ball and make sure he takes the next one.”
This week, the Metropolitan Police confirmed they were investigating racist abuse directed at Saka following Sunday’s clash at the London Stadium. It’s a sorry state of affairs but also one he’s experienced and overcome before, in part thanks to an outpouring of love from football fans across the globe.
When it was put to Arteta that Saka’s previous experience of missing a penalty will help him brush off the latest disappointment, he added:
“I don’t know. Experiences help, obviously and what he went through, in a way, was tough but in a different way, it was something beautiful and a great experience for him.
“I think that helped him and not only him but the people around him to understand what the reaction has to be, the support and the protection that he needs and he goes again.”
So we can’t give the ball to another player in the build up anymore. The theatre is pointless
I think that developed so that the taker wasn’t near the spot as the opposing captain grabbed the ball from his arms or the opposing keeper bumped him on his way back to the line.
Who knows, perhaps this is another decoy?
It’s unfortunate his only misses have been costly. But he doesn’t miss many
100%, most confident I’ve been in a long time with our pen taker, not counting AMN of course!
Oh AMN! In as much as I loved his pen duties, I wasn’t overly confident though!
He had scored the 6 previous penalties he had taken for us. It’s hard to blame him for his first ever penalty in the Euros. Sancho and Rashford missed too.
Lionel Messi missed the last penalty in the Copa America a few years ago (Alexis won it for Chile). Pretty costly. Not a big part of his resume.
Just this week, I’ve seen 3 penalties misses: Kvara, Giroud and Halaand. So missing penalties is a part of the game, big players miss them at the most important moment. People need to chill about Saka’s miss
Any chance we could get a discount on Kvaratskhelia cos of his penalty miss?
Saka missed a peno. It’s a shame there’s so much focus on the negatives. He did miss a peno. But instead of criticising him and remembering that miss, why not put it in context with all the goals he’s scored that perhaps he had no right to score. Let’s remember without those goals, we wouldn’t be where we are.
Doesn’t look so bad now does it.
I called it that he was going to miss, he just didn’t look confident in himself compared to the other times. I hope one lesson is if he experienced self doubt, then it’s ok to ask someone else to take it instead. But I hope his confidence comes back quickly. Within 10days we have seen Salah, Saka and Haaland miss penalty’s so it shows you the best don’t score everytime.
Would love to see him tuck one past City.
The most difficult part of that up at the Oil Slick though, will be being awarded with the fucking penalty in the first place.
Big players take penalities and sometimes penalties are missed, that’s just a fact of the game. Absolutely backing him to bury his next one.
100%
Good.