Arsenal warned they are ‘at risk of devaluing’ key star; expert insists Arteta’s Odegaard claim is ‘highly unlikely’

Arsenal are “at risk of devaluing one of their best products” in Bukayo Saka if they carry on playing him too much, according to an injury expert.

Manchester City midfielder Rodri suggested last week that players could strike over the increasing fixture congestion before days later he suffered a serious knee injury .

As well as fears over injury, there are worries that the players’ performances will also be impacted and make the spectacle poorer as a result.

Saka has consistently played over 50 matches for club and country over the past few seasons and football injury expert Ben Dinnery reckons Arsenal could end up “devaluing” the England international if he continues to play so much football.

Dinnery told Sports Casting: “If the expectation for Bukayo Saka is that he’s required to play 50-60 games a season at the highest level, then Arsenal are certainly at risk of devaluing one of their best products.

“The chances of him delivering good performances every week goes down. Some players are able to have that consistent level of higher load and still perform well – look at the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo over the years – but there should still be some caution exhibited.

“What I will say is that Mikel Arteta has a very open dialogue with his players regarding this – we saw him rest Ben White against Manchester City due to an issue with his knee. There will be player-led discussions about what’s best for Saka’s fitness and whether he’s able to play in each game, so it will be interesting to see how their use of him develops over time.”

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta insisted that captain Martin Odegaard set to return from an ankle injury in “a matter of weeks” and potentially before the international break – but Dinnery insists that is “highly unlikely”.

Dinnery added: “The was a suggestion from Mikel Arteta that Martin Ødegaard could return before the international break, although from personal experience that seems highly unlikely.

“It’s however not out of the question that we may see him before the end of October – a best-case scenario for these kinds of injuries is the 4-6 week time period.

“Arsenal have got some huge fixtures coming up as we head into the October period across the Premier League and Champions League, so there will be considerations around managing Ødegaard’s return.

“He’s the captain of the football club who keeps Arsenal ticking and walks back into their team when fully fit, but they should be wary of throwing him straight back into the action during that autumn period.”

A last-gasp John Stones equaliser saw Man City come from behind to snatch a 2-2 draw against ten-man Arsenal on Sunday but Graeme Sounes thought the match was a bad advert for Premier League football.

Souness told the Three Up Front podcast : “I was disappointed with what I saw in Sunday’s game between Manchester City and Arsenal; it was no advert for the Premier League. There are ways of going about a game when you’re down to 10 men and sometimes you’d switch to two banks of four with one up front, then at least you can still get up the pitch. They didn’t do that.

“Arsenal hardly got out of their box, never mind their own half – it was a horrible spectacle. The commentators were trying to make it sound interesting and fascinating, but I thought it was dull. If I were playing for Arsenal in that game I wouldn’t have enjoyed it. They basically said to Manchester City, ‘you’re so much better than us that this is how we feel we have to play’. There are other ways to play when you have a player sent off. If you play like that 100 times, 95% of the time you’ll concede goals.

“Arsenal have a squad full of fabulous players and I felt they could’ve offered more. The attitude of Mikel Arteta to play less adventurous was taken to the extreme against City and they could’ve gone about it in another way.”