Saka chasing down the most elusive and weirdest record

With seven assists in as many matches to start the Premier League, is the single-season target of 20 within his reach?

- JAMIE BRAIDWOOD

The race for the most assists across a single Premier League season is weird and unpredictable, often influenced by factors outside the control of its competitors. It is also a record that has stood for more than 20 years, or since Thierry Henry notched his 20th assist of the 2002-03 season. Since then, only Kevin De Bruyne has matched Henry’s figure over 38 games, in 2019-20, but it has been threatened on an almost annual basis over the past two decades.

This year, the immediate frontrunner, flying out of the starting blocks, is Bukayo Saka, who has seven assists through the first seven matches of the Premier League season. Saka has made an exceptional start. He is two assists away from equalling last season’s tally, and has already equalled his total from 2021-22, a campaign where he made 36 starts and featured in every game.

Saka’s two assists in Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Southampton suggested an attacker continuing to add new tools to his game; as well as his goals and near-constant threat on the wing, Saka’s set-piece delivery is now up there with the best in the division, while the 23-year-old has unlocked the devastating back-post cross after cutting inside, a weapon he used to set up Gabriel Martinelli in the comeback against Southampton.

As a complete wide forward and set-piece taker for a titlecontending team, who rarely misses a match, Saka may soon find that the assist record is within sight. He is already a third of the way there, after all, less than a quarter of the way through the season. Even if Saka’s current trajectory drops off slightly, the manner of his opening spell for Arsenal suggests he could challenge it.