Bukayo Saka has broken his silence following Arsenal's 2-1 win over Fulham. The 23-year-old winger, who had been nursing a hamstring injury since December, marked his return from the treatment room with a goal at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.
Mikel Merino fired the Gunners ahead shortly before half-time with a deflected effort from inside the box. After the break, Saka was brought on to replace Ethan Nwaneri – and it didn't take him long to make an impact.
The England international doubled Arsenal's lead just six minutes after coming on. Gabriel Martinelli helped Merino's cross find Saka, who was unmarked at the back post and headed the ball into an open net.
After the game, the Hale End graduate marked the occasion with a celebratory post on Instagram, which eclipsed 400,000 likes by Wednesday morning. Saka wrote: "…like we never left. Thank you [red heart emoji]."
Over 10,000 supporters flooded the comment section with messages of support. Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard congratulated Saka on his return from injury, posting red heart emojis, meanwhile, Merino said: "Happy for you my man [arm flexed emoji]!"
Speaking to reporters after the game, Arteta commented on Saka's performance. The Arsenal boss said: "I think it's a beautiful moment to see how much our people love, respect and admire Bukayo. He's not a surprise to any of us and I think the best example is his reaction.
"Immediately after scoring a goal, what does he do? He goes and says thank you for all the hard work that all the sports science guys, physios and everybody involved in the recovery have done for him to be in the condition that he is.
"I think he lifted the stadium, the energy and it's great to have him back," added Arteta. "He was very positive. I think the first [game] is always the one, how am I going to feel? Because now I have a different opposition in front of me, different demands and pressure.
"He dealt with it really well and the downside to that is Gabi and Jurrien, we don't know how they're going to be. We'll be assessing them tomorrow and understand better how we are with those two."
On Saka's moment with Sam Wilson, the Lead Physical Performance Coach at Arsenal, Arteta said: "As a manager I'm part of the staff. We all love this kind of recognition and gestures because it goes beyond the professional side of it.
"There is a connection there that is so necessary and to be able to appreciate as well the amount of work, stress and responsibility that they have to go through because they will be like this.
"I hope everything goes well and the work that we've done is going to work. So, I was very pleased with that."
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