William Saliba missed Arsenal’s Premier League draw against Chelsea after picking up an injury in training and his availability for Brentford remains unclear
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has provided an update on William Saliba’s fitness after the defender missed the 1-1 draw against Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.
Saliba was a noticeable absentee from the Gunners’ team named by Arteta ahead of the clash at Stamford Bridge. The club revealed that the France international had sustained an injury in training.
“Yesterday in training he was uncomfortable, so we need to explore a little bit more what happened,” Arteta said before kick-off. “I don’t think it’s something major, but enough not to be involved in the game.”
After the entertaining 1-1 draw in London, Arteta was asked for further clarity on Saliba’s fitness. The game against Chelsea was just the second game in three years, three months and 25 days during which Arteta has been unable to pick either Saliba or Gabriel Magalhaes, who is nursing an injury himself, in the Premier League.
“It’s been a headache because obviously we have to have a lot of options and changes in the last few months for different reasons,” he said. “That one is, as you said, with those numbers that I didn’t know, very unexpected, and it happened yesterday.
“But the beauty of it is that you have players so willing to play, so willing to connect with each other. We will build a relationship even better. So today was a great learning match for all of us and as well give you the assurance that whoever is there is going to perform.”
Asked about a possible timeframe on Saliba’s return, he added: “I don’t know. I think he’s got another test tomorrow. We’ll need to see the extent of that feeling, that sensation that he had. And we’ll know more with Gabi still more weeks to go.”
The Gunners came away from the London derby with a feeling of disappointment after failing to win against ten men. However, Arteta praised his players for their work in the past week, which included victories over Tottenham and Bayern Munich.
“It’s been a big week, starting with the derby. How emotional and the necessity and the intention we have to win it,” the Spaniard explained. “Then to play Bayern Munich three days later. We lost players in those games.
“Today, for example, we had to play [back four] that we never played before in a really difficult match. The captain is still not here. The nine is still not here. Kai [Havertz] is still not here. We lost Leo [Trossard] in midweek as well. But the team had to react to that.
“I think overall it’s been a really positive week because the difficulty was immense. But I have this [feeling] that today we should have and we could have won the game and we haven’t. That’s a learning point for me.”
