By Samuel A. April 5, 2025
Arsenal’s shining star Bukayo Saka returned to football action on Tuesday evening against Fulham on Tuesday evening after missing three months of the season due to a serious hamstring injury that required surgery in December 2024. The forward played 24 minutes on the night, but only needed seven to score the goal that secured the win for the gunners by heading in from far post after a flick-on by Martinelli.
The English international was also rested on Saturday against Everton, but came on in the second half in a one all draw contest where arsenal lacked the cutting edge to win maximum points.
The main joy of the Gunners’ fans is that he has returned ahead of a big game against Real Madrid in the Champions League on the 8th of April.
Elsewhere, Gabriel Magalhaes will miss the rest of the season, meaning Arteta’s options in defence are short. Jurrien Timber picked up a little problem in the win over Fulham, while Ben White missed out entirely, but participated vs Everton, a game which left Arteta frustrated.
“There’s no question that apart from that – they had nothing but, obviously, that completely changes the momentum and the result”, he said. “I think we deserve more, but that’s what we got at the end. We had two big chances to win the game, we didn’t convert them, so we have to accept the point.”
Speaking about the Real Madrid game ahead, he said: “One of the most beautiful games that you can play in football, in the highest European competition, against the team that has dominated that competition in the last 20, 25 years. So, yeah, really looking forward to it. There were four players that couldn’t start the game after what happened with Fulham and obviously the injury of Gabi forces you to make some changes as well because players deserve to play minutes. I’m very happy with that. Some of them haven’t trained, they haven’t had the opportunity to start the game. Everybody has to be important, has to feel important. We have so many games coming up right now and we have to rely on all of them.”
