Bukayo Saka set Mohamed Salah challenge as Arsenal world-class debate rumbles on

Arsenal star Bukayo Saka has been told he must score more goals to be considered world-class.

The 23-year-old has shown a remarkable level of consistency since making his debut in the against Vorskla Poltava in 2018. Becoming one of the first names on the teamsheet in the 2019/20 season, has since come on leaps and bounds and experienced his best season personally last campaign, scoring 20 goals and grabbing 14 assists in 47 appearances in all competitions.

has also started the 2024/25 season in decent form and already has 10 goal contributions in 10 games. Despite his respectable output, former winger Jermaine Pennant has claimed Saka must add even more goals and assists to his performances to sit at the same table as the likes of and be considered world-class.

since moving from AS Roma in 2017, with the Egyptian scoring a staggering 217 goals in 359 appearances for the Reds. Speaking to , Pennant believes Saka should look to emulate Salah's numbers in the coming years.

“It's difficult with Bukayo Saka,” Pennant said. “I look at players in his position like Mohamed Salah, who is definitely world-class because of the numbers he’s put up over the past seven years at Liverpool. He’s always scoring 20 goals a season and recording double figures in assists too.

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"With Saka, his best goalscoring season so far has been 15 goals, so I think he needs to get up to Salah’s numbers in order to reach that world-class status. I think Saka can achieve that in the future, but for the time being, you can’t give someone a world-class status when there are players in his position recording better statistics.

"If Saka can put up some slightly higher numbers, then I’d describe him as a world-class player. Would he get into Liverpool’s XI on the right over Salah? I don’t think so, not yet.”

While Saka has 10 goal contributions (three goals and seven assists) so far this season, Salah has 11 (six goals and five assists). The two will come face to face on October 27 when Liverpool travel to Emirates Stadium for what promises to be an entertaining match.