Bukayo Saka interview: God is taking care of me during Arsenal title push

Bukayo Saka has played down fears he could burn out in the run-in, saying he wants to play every game, bring Arsenal "happiness" and then spend the entire summer asleep.

Saka, who last night was named Young Player of the Year at the London Football Awards, has already made 40 appearances for club and country this season.

Those include four at the World Cup in Qatar, and a League Cup defeat by Brighton in November remains the only game he has missed for Arsenal this season.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has refused to rest the 21-year-old and has said the world's top players have to want to play "70 matches, every three days" over the course of a campaign.

Saka is expected to keep his place in the side for Thursday's Europa League last-16 decider against Sporting, and when the Gunners aim to maintain their five-point lead at the top of the table against Crystal Palace on Sunday.

He is also expected to play a significant role in England's Euro 2024 qualifiers against Italy and Ukraine later this month.

Speaking to Standard Sport at the awards at the Roundhouse in Camden last night, Saka insisted he is just happy to be playing.

"I'm just happy to be on the pitch," he said. "If I put it two ways: would I rather be injured or on the pitch, I want to be on the pitch. If I'd asked myself when I was younger where I would want to be [now], it was on the pitch playing for Arsenal every week, competing at the highest level. So I take it, I'm happy.

"I just want to continue to push to the end of the season and then in the summer I can lock myself in my room and sleep for the rest of the summer!"

Saka added: "I try to be as professional as possible, take care of myself. Eat the best, sleep as much as I can.

"When I'm in training, learn as much as I can and in the games just play 100 per cent. I leave the rest in God's hands. God's been taking care of me. Some tackles, I could have been lucky [to avoid injury] but I wouldn't call it luck. I believe in God and he's taking care of me. I've just been staying fit and hopefully I can continue doing my best for Arsenal so we can have some happiness at the end of the season."

Saka was also nominated for the Player of the Year award, won by his team-mate Martin Odegaard, and won the young player award for the second time after his honour for 2020-21.

"It's a pleasure to win," he said. "I won it a few years ago but I wasn't able to come because it was lockdown. So it's nice they're recognising what I'm doing on the pitch. I'm really grateful. I feel I've improved a lot. I'm happy with the progress that I'm making but there's still a lot to do. I feel I'm in a good direction."