Steven Gerrard knows getting injured hurts – why the bluster?

Steven Gerrard gave a strangely ‘proper football man’ response to Bukayo Saka’s protection request for someone with steel pins in his hip.

Bukayo Saka is one of the few England players who hasn’t had a disastrous season in one way or another. His form hasn’t dipped alarmingly, he hasn’t had a string of injuries that may or may not be related to the sheer volume of games he’s had to play and he hasn’t unexpectedly found himself shunted out of his team because of a previously unexpected new arrival. He’s been one of the powerhouses in Arsenal’s revival towards returning to the Champions League, and while this season won’t end with any medals, both him and his team have improved.

But such success comes at a price, and in the case of Saka that has been unwelcome attention of opposing defenders. In Arsenal’s recent away match at Aston Villa, the nature of that attention was such that Saka admitted to BT Sport after the match that he had spoken to referee Andrew Madley about the treatment he was getting from the Villa players:

“I wasn’t complaining to the ref but I just wanted to let him know that that’s my game, running at players with pace, and sometimes I need a bit more protection when players are purposefully trying to kick me.”

Saka was withdrawn in a game Arsenal won 1-0, by Mikel Arteta with 20 minutes of the match to play.

Of course, the question of whether there has been a coordinated effort to foul Saka over the course of this season is an extremely loaded one. Is he, as has been repeatedly claimed, being ‘targeted’? Well, he isn’t the most fouled Premier League player this season. That honour currently belongs to Wilfried Zaha, who’s been fouled three times per game, twice as many as Saka’s average of 1.5.

Indeed,