Can somebody explain why Saka isn’t in the Premier League team of the season? The 21-year-old has been nothing short of brilliant for Arsenal and the Three Lions, delivering on all expectations.
You can’t talk about the 2022–23 Premier League season without mentioning how fantastic this Arsenal team has been. You can’t talk about Arsenal’s excellence this season without mentioning Saka’s standout efforts, which have helped make the Gunners’ season a blockbuster. The Englishman, who has 10+ league goals and 10 assists this season, is leading the Gunners to their first top-4 finish since 2017. He should have made that list. It is “criminal” for him to miss out on it.
Even so, the Premier League team of the season is already out, and the Gunners have rightfully dominated it with four stars. Don’t worry if you haven’t seen the list. I’ve got you covered. Here is the team:
For the goalkeeper position, Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale made the cut, having procured 12 clean sheets this season and guiding Arsenal close to a league win (if Manchester City can drop those six points, they need to lose for Arsenal to win the league).
Kieran Trippier, William Saliba, Rubén Dias, and Oleksandr Zinchenko make the defence.
Kevin De Bruyne, Casemiro, and Martin Odegaard make up the midfield.
Mohamed Salah on the right wing, Erling Haaland at centre forward, and Marcus Rashford on the left wing make up the attack.
Aside from Star Boy Saka, who else do you think is a miss on the team of the season? Martinelli Perhaps? I’m sure you’re wondering, “How much better has Rashford been compared to the Brazilian winger?”
Darren N
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Martinelli is better than Rashford, but as brilliant as Saka is, Mo Salah has been doing it consistently for a lot longer than our youngster, so probably gets priority based on that.
Agree,
Saka has been short at times defensively
I’m pretty sure I would take Saka over Salah this year for any single match, but Salah has come on strong late season and Saka seemed to peak in the early midseason so it’s not an easy decision. But Saka tracks back and plays far better defense than Salah, so that is not a valid reason.
I think martinelli has been more consistent than Saka, but both have been excellent.
It’s all about the timing for rashford – he was unstoppable for a long spell, presumably when voting took place, so can understand his inclusion from that perspective. He’s dropped off again now, so it appears unfair, but that’s just how it works.
Zinchenko ??? Really ???? ha ha ha, ho ho ho.
Like rashford, he was great earlier in the season
Certainly had his moments good and bad, but if a real left back needs to be picked, it’s got to be Luke Shaw for me. I have alot of time for him and he’s had a generally good and consistent season.
I know he’s not one of ours, but if he was offered to us I’d snap hands to have him (that’s how highly I rate him). He had a terrible injury a few years back, then was made a virtual outcast with constant criticism from Mourinho. Overcame that adversity and still doing it at a high level for both club and country. All round very good defender who is both offensively good and can really defend, unlike our OZ.
That’s a great point actually. Shaw has been excellent this year and over the course probably has been better left back.
Dan burn has been good as well. Salah might have scored many goals but he has been largely under par this season. Saka has been brilliant bar the last few games and you can chuck that down to fatigue
overrated and overweight, he would not fit into our style of football
Luke does seem to have a weight issue, but I rate him highly. Your’e right I can’t see him playing in our team, but he’s shown character after surviving serious injury and that Portuguese “manager”.
Sorry Dav, my follow-up message is about Zinchenko not Martinelli.
No im with your, I was talking about zinchenko as well – just saying it is similar to the rashford pick, in that both were great earlier in the season but dropped off recently
Rodri has been the outstanding defensive midfielder in the League by some way .Pundits have been getting carried away by Casemiro who has to resort to conceding free kicks when the going gets tough because he lacks real pace in recovery.In fact, until 2/3 weeks ago, Partey was running Rodri close for top DM but unfortunately, his form has shaded off recently.Contrary to what is suggested in the article, Salah has not had a great season and our talented wingers can consider themselves unfortunate not to be selected, not that it matters a dam .In a 4-3-3 set up to play Trippier and Zinchenko beggars belief as they are both weak defensively.White and Shaw would be my full backs
The only thing i can say is that those guys were ashamed to put Martineli there for sure because of the number of Arsenal players already in that team.Martineli is by far a superior player than Rashford this season for sure and i could still say that Rodrigo of city is a better player than Casemiro, The team of the season will actually be dominated by Arsenal and Man city Arsenal will surely have about five or six players and City about three Newcastle one Liverpool one
Ramsdale
Trippier William Saliba Dias Zinchenko
De bruyne Rodrigo Martin Odegaard
Salah Haaland Martineli
Ramsdale:
Trippier, Saliba, Stones, Shaw;
De Bruyne, Casemiro, Odegaard;
Saka, Haaland, Rashford.
Honorary mentions:
Pope, White, Dias, L.Martinez, Salah, Mitoma, Martinelli, Kane.
Maybe a nutural left back would have been good but Zinchenko has been impressive this season 2 or 3 bad games cannot be used to judge a player.Because of is goals scoring form Haaland is said to be the best player this season but for those who have watched him play most of the time he is just ball watching you will not be impressed by is overall play Harry Kane is a better player than him when it comes to overall footballing brain
Naftali, absolutely agree with you there. Kane is still a better all round player than Haaland, hands down. And more skillful. Harry is playing in a comparatively poor team, yet he does the business most of the time.
Lots of hype about Haaland, who is decent, but I’d choose Harry every day of the week, and I’m not a Spurs fan.
Yea, Naftali you got it right. Martinelli is up than Rashford this season just as Man City is when compared to Casemiro. While Saka a star boy who immensely impacted the Arteta squad has the impetus when compared to the senior guy [Mo Salah] in this seasons’ show up. Although, despite being a Gunner, Zinchenko’s enlistment was a great surprise when his recent flaws in the Arteta’s men is put into consideration.
Yea, Naftali you got it right. Martinelli is up than Rashford this season just as Man City’s Rodrigo when compared to Casemiro. While Saka a star boy who immensely impacted the Arteta squad has the impetus when compared to the senior guy [Mo Salah] in this seasons’ show up. Although, despite being a Gunner, Zinchenko’s enlistment was a great amazement for me because of his recent flaws in the Arteta’s men.
To be fair, white has a decent shout over trippier, who I don’t doubt has been excellent, but i think benefits from being one of the most recognisable names in a generally very good Newcastle side.
Joelinton and Bruno guilmares from Newcastle and Grealish from city also deserve mentions – particularly Grealish, who I think has been a huge part of their recovery.
Davi, it is amazing though that Guardiola jettisoned Cancelo, who for me is unbelievably superb, and would probably have got into the team of the season if he had been playing. They must really have had a falling out, big time. Probably similar to what happened with our Trossard and Di Zerbi, who described him as having a “bad attitude”. Our gain though, so all is good.