£162k-per-week flop will never start for Arsenal again after Saka's return

Arsenal returned to Premier League action with a bang last night.

Mikel Arteta’s side were not perfect by any means, but aside from a nervous last few minutes, they were comfortably the better team against Fulham and fully deserving of all three points.

Moreover, the game marked the long-awaited return of Bukayo Saka, who hadn’t played a minute of football since his hamstring injury against Crystal Palace back in December.

Unsurprisingly, the Hale Ender, who received a rapturous reception, was as effective as he’s ever been, scoring the North Londoners’ second goal just seven minutes after coming on.

However, while his return is excellent news for the team overall, it probably means a certain player won’t start another game this season.

Arsenal’s frontline options

So, with the sensational Saka already looking like his old self, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him start the game against Everton on the weekend.

After all, his 24 goal involvements in 25 games make him the team’s most productive player this season, and with the tie against Real Madrid coming next week, Arteta will want him as sharp as possible.

So, who’s likely to start down the middle for most of the rest of the campaign, then? Well, there are a few options, like Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard or even Ethan Nwaneri, but after last night, it seems almost set in stone that it’ll be Mikel Merino.

The former Real Sociedad star might be a central midfielder by trade, but since moving up top against Leicester City almost two months ago, he has been surprisingly effective. He has scored five goals and provided one assist in eight appearances as a centre-forward, which equates to a goal involvement every 1.33 games.

Now, nobody is under the illusion that he’s the answer long-term, but the 28-year-old has stepped up when his team has needed him, and that’s goals in back-to-back league games now.

Based on last night’s game, the player to the left of the Spaniard for the next few games should be Martinelli.

The Brazilian has not been particularly impressive this season, but against Fulham, he looked like the player who took the league by storm in the 22/23 campaign and was a constant threat throughout the 90 minutes.

He had Timothy Castagne beat from the very first attack, and while he didn’t get a goal, he did provide an assist for Saka through an utterly ridiculous backheel.

While that will likely be Arteta’s starting attack for the next few games, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Trossard and Nwaneri continue to be heavily involved until the end of the season, which is not something we can say for another attacker.

The Arsenal star who won’t start again

With almost all of Arsenal’s fit attacking players already mentioned above, it’ll likely come as no surprise that the player in question is none other than Raheem Sterling.

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The Chelsea loanee joined the club on deadline day in the summer, and while he told the fans that they were going to “see the best” of him, they’ve seen anything but.

The Englishman has scored just one goal and provided four assists in 23 appearances for the North Londoners.

Worse yet, in his 12 Premier League appearances, the 30-year-old winger has provided just a single assist and hasn’t created a single big chance.

Moreover, since he was hooked away to Leicester almost two months ago, the Kingston-born ace has played just 22 minutes of league football in the four games he’s been eligible to play in.

Now, if he was earning a pittance, then this probably wouldn’t be such an issue, but the Gunners are paying him around £162k-per-week to sit on the bench and offer next to nothing when he comes off of it.

That certainly lends credence to Connor Humm’s assertion that his loan move has been an “absolute waste of time and money.”

Ultimately, it would be hard to describe Sterling’s loan to Arsenal as anything other than a failure. Furthermore, with Saka back in the side and Merino and Martinelli looking good, we can’t see a world where he starts another game this season.

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Bukayo Saka returned to the Arsenal team as they beat Fulham 2-1.