Saka returning to top form for trophy-chasing Arsenal

Welcome to The Radar, a Sky Sports column in which Nick Wright uses a blend of data and opinion to shed light on need-to-know stories from up and down the Premier League. This week:

🔴 White's service has unlocked Saka
⚒️ Mavropanos a goal threat for Hammers
🔍 A player to watch this weekend

Saka benefits from White reunion

In first-half stoppage time of Arsenal's meeting with Fulham at the Emirates Stadium, Ben White and Bukayo Saka exchanged a flurry of passes which had three white-shirted defenders chasing shadows and drew a round of applause from the home fans.

The sequence of play, executed in a tight space on the right-hand side, allowed Arsenal to retain possession and sustain their pressure on the visitors. It also provided an example of the chemistry that makes White and Saka uniquely valuable as a pairing.

Injuries have severely limited their opportunities to play together in the last two seasons, with Mikel Arteta coming to prefer Jurrien Timber at right-back. The Fulham game was the first they both started in the Premier League since December.

Their reunion helps to explain Saka's return to form. After contributing a goal and an assist against Fulham, the 24-year-old sent Arsenal into the Champions League final with his winner against Atletico Madrid, again with White selected behind him.

That stoppage-time flurry of passes against Fulham was just one example of their mutual understanding. The next one arrived only a few minutes later as they combined in their own half, together with Declan Rice, to play their way out of another tight space.

This time, it led to a goal. Saka's pass to Gabriel Magalhaes was high-risk but it allowed Arsenal to transfer the ball to the opposite side of the pitch, where Leandro Trossard had space to charge forward and cross for Viktor Gyokeres to head in their third.

Saka went off at half-time having exchanged 14 passes with White. The right-back's total of nine passes to Saka was the highest by any player in the game, and only one short of matching Timber's total in his last three starts behind Saka before his injury in March.

The pair continued in the same vein against Atletico Madrid.

Again, White made more passes to Saka than any other player before his 58th-minute withdrawal, with eight, as the pair showed the strength of their connection for a second time in four days.

Arsenal's attacking thirds highlight the extent of their right-sided threat in both games while Saka and White were on the pitch together compared to afterwards.

Since the start of the 2022/23 season in the Premier League, when White made the switch from centre-back to right-back, he and Saka have exchanged 19.6 passes per 90 minutes, a significantly higher average than Timber and Saka's 12.4 per 90 minutes.

White's absence is not the only factor in the dip in Saka's output this season. Having previously had to battle back from a serious hamstring injury, Saka has only recently overcome the effects of the Achilles injury he suffered in March, according to Arteta.

But the stark difference in service from White compared to Timber shows what Saka has been missing. Nobody has a better understanding of Saka's runs than White.

"We just kind of know," he said in conversation with Sky Sports in 2023. "I don't really understand why, but, when I look up, I know what he's going to be doing or where he's going to be."

There are stylistic factors too. White is more active in Arsenal's build-up than Timber, averaging significantly more touches and passes.

He is also braver and more incisive with his distribution. White's forward passing percentage of 38.9 per cent since his move to right-back in 2022/23 is far higher than Timber's. It is in fact the highest of any outfield player at Arsenal in that timeframe.

White also serves Saka by making overlapping runs at a higher rate than Timber, dragging defenders with him to leave the winger one-vs-one. "That's what I'm there to do," he added in 2023. "I'm there to help him get into positions where he can do what he is so good at."

It all adds up to make Saka a more potent attacker. Across the last four Premier League seasons, Saka averages nearly 20 per cent more goals and assists when starting with White compared to Timber, at 0.67 per 90 minutes and 0.57 per 90 minutes respectively.

It is only recently, though, that White has rediscovered his form. And Timber, another centre-back-turned-right-back, was of course excelling in the role himself before being sidelined by injury.

He may not share the same chemistry with Saka, or be as accomplished as White in possession, but he has shown considerable improvement as he has adapted to the on-ball demands of the position over the last two seasons.

He also brings invaluable strengths of his own. The Dutch international is a major threat from set-piece situations and has few peers as a one-vs-one defender. His defensive solidity at right-back has helped to elevate an already formidable defensive unit.

For Arteta, those qualities would likely give Timber the edge over White in a straight choice between the two to face Paris Saint-Germain's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the Champions League final.

But if he wants to get the maximum out of Arsenal's best attacking player, then it's his old partner White who has the stronger claim.

Mavropanos a goal threat

Before Arsenal turn their attention to the Champions League final, there is the small matter of the Premier League run-in to contend with. It continues at West Ham on Super Sunday, where they will come up against their former player Konstantinos Mavropanos.

The 28-year-old suffered the misfortune of scoring an own goal in West Ham's defeat to Brentford last weekend but it might have turned out differently had he not been fractionally offside when heading what would have been an equaliser shortly afterwards.

The goal, although disallowed, was another reminder of his potency from set-pieces. Mavropanos has three set-piece goals in his last six Premier League appearances.

Arsenal had a first-hand reminder of it when he crashed a brilliant header beyond David Raya from a James Ward-Prowse corner when West Ham won at the Emirates Stadium in December 2023. The Hammers will aim to pick him out again at the London Stadium.

Player Radar: Who else to keep an eye on

Newcastle's William Osula faces Nottingham Forest on Sunday having scored three goals in four Premier League games. The 22-year-old also gave William Saliba a tough afternoon in the only one of those games in which he didn't find the net.