Arsenal aware of 'strong' Leicester City star Daka – Arteta

BetOdds African All Stars Leicester City v Arsenal Patson Daka Premier League Arsenal Leicester City

The Zambia striker moved to England from RB Salzburg in June and he has started to find his feet in Brendan Rodgers' team

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has stated they are mindful of ‘strong’ Leicester City striker Patson Daka ahead of their Premier League match on Saturday.

The Gunners head to the King Power Stadium with the hopes of extending their eight-game unbeaten run across all competitions, while Leicester City have won their last four matches in all competitions.

Daka has made a promising start to life in England, since he joined the Foxes on a five-year contract in June.

The Zambia international has scored five goals in all competitions so far, after opening his Premier League goal account against Manchester United a fortnight ago and he followed it up with four goals in a Europa League game against Spartak Moscow on October 20.

When asked about Daka in Friday’s press conference, Arteta said: “Yes, we’ve been aware of him. I think Leicester have been really strong and clever in their recruitment over the years - that they have been able to build the team that they have. He looks a really strong player.”

Daka is already striking a good partnership with Nigeria’s Kelechi Iheanacho in the Foxes attack and Brendan Rodgers has compared him with club legend Jamie Vardy.

“He plays on the shoulder, he wants to run in behind and he’s a natural goalscorer. You can see that in him, very much like Jamie [Vardy] in terms of his movements,” Rodgers told the club’s website earlier this week.

“They want to go in behind. They want to stretch backlines. Once they’re in that final 25 yards of the pitch, they have confidence they can score. Patson’s in a great position to learn from someone like Jamie.

“He’s watching him every day and, even without speaking, you can see that he’s looking at his movements and he’s learning and developing from being here in the environment. He is what he is.

“He’s a real, real good guy whose energy and life around the place… I think he typified it when he came in. He had to do his quarantine and he was going to be stuck indoors for 10 days. The club was great in asking him what he wanted, in terms of teles and PlayStation and whatever else, in his room. He didn’t want anything. He said he just wanted some books. That was him.

“He wanted to read, he wanted to find out about Leicester…he probably read Vards’ book as well maybe! He’s such a great guy. He’s so full of life.

“He [Daka] loves being here and I just think, with time, his game going to continually improve. He has this natural ability to sniff out a goal and you see that in his record and that will be proven here in the Premier League as well, I’m sure.”

2021-10-30 10:00:02

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