Bukayo Saka's performance in Arsenal's commanding 3-0 opening-day Premier League victory over newly promoted Coventry has sparked confident talk among supporters that the Gunners can retain their title — and the signs are genuinely encouraging.

The 24-year-old had an injury-disrupted final stretch to last season after suffering an Achilles problem in March. He missed seven club matches and an international break, before returning to help Arsenal claim the Premier League for the first time in 22 years.

Saka was then taken off during the Champions League final, a defeat to Paris-St Germain in Budapest, and his display drew criticism. At the World Cup, England manager Thomas Tuchel also restricted his minutes — a decision Saka accepted as a "gamble" he was willing to take while carrying the injury.

A World Cup that ended with hunger rather than satisfaction

Saka started only three of England's eight matches at the tournament and played just 357 minutes — 48 percent of the side's total game-time. He still delivered six goal involvements: three goals and three assists, the latter figure shared with Anthony Gordon as the most of any England player.

His most memorable moment came in the third-place final, where he scored a hat-trick in a 6-4 win over France — England's best finish at a World Cup on foreign soil. Yet he was absent for the semi-final defeat against Argentina despite starting the last-16 win over Mexico and the quarter-final victory over Norway.

After the tournament, Saka did not hide his dissatisfaction. "The World Cup didn't necessarily go how I wanted it to, for myself and for the team as well," he said. "I felt really hungry after the World Cup, after the season ended. I was looking forward to this new season."

Meticulous preparation for a fresh start

That hunger drove Saka to return to training earlier than scheduled. He took just seven days off before restarting work, and his first taste of action this season came off the bench during the Community Shield as Arsenal led Manchester City 3-0 — a cameo that displayed an urgency and acceleration that had been missing in the closing weeks of last campaign.

Against Coventry on Friday, he was electric. Right-back Jay Dasilva had no answer to his pace and movement, and Saka capped the performance with Arsenal's second goal. In the mixed zone afterwards, he was candid about his preparation.

"I was training a lot so I could be ready for the start of the season and ready to help the team in the way I know I can," he said. "I took seven days off and then started to train again. I've put in a lot of work since then and I'm feeling good."

The partnership driving Arsenal's attack

A revived Saka is only part of the story. The returns of Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard, and Ben White to full fitness have given Arsenal a cohesion that was absent through much of last season's injury-plagued run.

White's overlapping runs from right-back are widely considered the catalyst that unlocks Saka's best football, and the understanding between Saka, Odegaard, and Havertz in the final third makes Arsenal's attack genuinely difficult to contain. The Coventry win was only the second time since December 2024 that the trio started a Premier League game together.

Questions have been asked about whether manager Mikel Arteta leans too heavily on Saka — across the past three seasons the winger has made 153 appearances, including 61 full 90-minute outings. But a spell on the sidelines and reduced minutes at the World Cup may have inadvertently provided the reset he needed. If the first game of the season is any indication, Arsenal's opponents could be in for a difficult year.