Bukayo Saka led Arsenal to victory in the Champions League on Wednesday, but was left with some regrets after being denied his first hat trick for his boyhood club by one of his teammates.
The England winger had already scored twice against Monaco at Emirates Stadium when he sent a shot toward goal in the 88th minute. The shot might have been saved by the goalkeeper, but it deflected rather unwittingly off the shin of Kai Havertz and into the net to seal a 3-0 win for Arsenal.
“He got in the way of it,” Saka said about Havertz, laughing, “but don’t worry, it’s [a hat trick] coming. It’s on the way.”
Still, with three goal contributions, Saka was again decisive for Arsenal and manager Mikel Arteta said the 23-year-old right winger was on his way to reaching a world-class level.
“You have to be able to do that consistently throughout many years to put yourself in that position,” Arteta said. “We can compare what he’s done in his first six years of professional football, which is exceptional, you know, and that’s it and his aim is to improve.
“He has the players and environment to continue to do that and I’m sure he will.”
Amid injury problems in defense, 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly was handed a Champions League debut and played at left-back, where he has featured a number of times as a substitute in the Premier League this season.
The highly rated Lewis-Skelly said he was taking inspiration from Saka, who also came out of the Arsenal academy as a teenager.
“Looking up to Bukayo, he has that mindset, he has everything,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot from him and I want to keep learning.”
Arsenal climbed to third place in the 36-team standings with the win.
“In the first half we should have put the game to bed but we didn’t,” Arteta said. “In the Champions League you will have difficult moments and we suffered.
“Then with the second goal the game was in control.”
Arsenal’s final two UCL matches are against Dinamo Zagreb at home and away to Girona.
Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this story.
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