A deafening crowd, a raucous atmosphere – it’s all just part of the job for Bukayo Saka. “Big crowds don’t faze me,” he says as he looks back on silencing opposition supporters, playing behind closed doors and inspiring his own fans.
Anyone who’s been to Emirates Stadium this season will have felt it – a buzz in the air, renewed hope, even a sense of expectation, not necessarily that Arsenal are going to conquer the world just yet, but that this club is just starting to build something special.
Young players are key to that. They exude energy, and that energy feeds the crowd, which in turn gives those young players the confidence to express themselves on the pitch. They represent the future of the club – a future that, thanks to its youth, is unencumbered by failures of the past – and you could reasonably argue that no one player represents the hope and expectation of this coming Arsenal era more than Academy graduate Bukayo Saka.
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If that’s a burden, you wouldn’t know it from hearing the 20-year-old speak. He doesn’t appear to feel pressure.
“I wouldn’t say I’m fazed by big crowds,” he says as an example, before recalling one specific foreign trip that was instrumental in his footballing education. “When we went to Frankfurt away in the Europa League I’d say that was one of the most crazy atmospheres I’ve been in. Even before the game my ears were ringing, it was so loud. I was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing,’ and I went and had a good game. I actually enjoyed it.”