Bukayo Saka responds to Thierry Henry with huge title claim after Arsenal’s win over PSG

Bukayo Saka boldly declared that ‘this is the year’ Arsenal will break their Premier League championship drought after leading the side to a 2-0 Champions League victory over Paris Saint-Germain.

In Martin Odegaard’s absence at the Emirates, the Arsenal attacker donned the captain’s armband and played an important role in the win, extending the hosts’ lead following Kai Havertz’s headed goal midway through the half.

Mikel Arteta’s side never looked like allowing their opponents back into the game and held strong to clinch a comfortable win, their first of the campaign after being restricted to a goalless draw by Atalanta the previous time out.

The triumph propelled the Gunners to eighth position in the Champions League standings, extending the club’s undefeated streak in all competitions to nine games this season.

The north London giants will be confident of reaching 10 when they return to the stadium on Saturday to play newly promoted Southampton, who have only one point in the Premier League this season.

Saka, clearly buoyed by the victory, spoke with Thierry Henry and the rest of the CBS Sports crew about the performance while also looking ahead to the obstacles that an in-form Arsenal would face.

When asked by Henry if this may be Arsenal’s year to win the Premier League title, Saka replied: ‘I don’t want to put too much pressure on us, but I believe this is the year.

‘I believe we’ve been close in the previous two years, and we’re moving closer. But, perhaps, this is the year.’

Henry lauded Arsenal’s strikers’ efforts when out of possession, which delighted Saka.

‘I’m glad you spotted that. “The attackers are also doing a lot of work for the clean sheets,” the England international said.

‘But, of course, we have to do our part to assist the defence.

‘It’s not easy being an aggressive player. I want to get up the pitch and spare my legs for the changeover.

‘But when I look at the results and how we’ve done this season, we’ve got a lot of clean sheets, which indicates that it’s working.

“In most games, we believe we can score in open play from set-pieces, so as long as we score in most games, we can win.”

Speaking to Amazon Prime immediately after the final whistle, Arteta expressed his satisfaction with his team’s’very dominant’ first-half performance against a PSG squad ‘with a lot of personality’.

‘I’m definitely overjoyed,’ said Arsenal’s head coach.

‘We faced a formidable opponent, a squad with a lot of personality that is really tough to cope with, especially when you don’t have the ball.

‘But, especially in the first half, we were really dominant, and the second half was quite different.