Mikel Arteta has cast fresh doubt over William Saliba’s hopes of returning for Arsenal this season, admitting the defender’s recovery from a back injury is progressing more slowly than hoped.
Saliba has not played since departing early from the Europa League defeat by Sporting on 16 March and Arsenal have not kept a clean sheet in his absence. Their buildup play from the back has also been compromised and Arteta has been eager to welcome him back for the likely title decider at Manchester City on Wednesday. Speaking before Friday night’s match at home to Southampton, though, the manager suggested the chances were receding.
“We still have to wait a little bit more,” Arteta said, scotching suggestions Saliba was in line for a return to training. “He is not progressing as quick as we hoped. It’s a bit delicate and we want to be very certain when we push him that he is ready to absorb the load and the risk that we will take and at the moment that’s not possible to do.”
On any prospect of the injury being season-ending, he said: “I don’t know, it’s a bit early to do [predictions]. Probably next week we are going to have more certainty. There is some evolution, he is doing more activity, but he is not there yet to start, to throw him on the pitch at the level that the sessions demand to compete in this league.”
Oleksandr Zinchenko, who missed Sunday’s draw with West Ham with a minor groin injury, will be tested to assess his fitness for the visit of Southampton.
Arteta confirmed Bukayo Saka would remain Arsenal’s penalty taker despite missing a crucial spot-kick in the draw at West Ham. “Yes,” he said. “If not, I will go on the pitch and throw him the ball to make sure he takes the next one.”
Arsenal’s capacity to handle a title fight has been questioned after their squandering of consecutive 2-0 leads. They switched off when well ahead at Anfield and London Stadium, counting the cost bitterly. Arteta believes the visit of bottom-placed Southampton will serve as a reset and has noticed a desire to put things right in this week’s training. “I see a sense of revenge and determination to get even better, and that it’s not enough, and you have to tweak it and demand more and more of each other,” he said.
“We have to be perfectionists but at the same time we have to play with that flow. We are really good when we play with that energy and flow and don’t think about the results.”
He explained the team had gathered this week and shown the hunger he expects. “[They showed it in] the way they talked, the way they communicated in the meetings we had,” he said. “The discussions to understand how we move forward after that. It was all the right answers: they were very clear on what we want, how we’re going to do it and why it’s taken us all the way here.”
Arteta emphasised that the rear-view threat of City, who are four points behind Arsenal with a game in hand and that crucial home meeting in store, is not informing his side’s approach. “I don’t know,” he said when asked how it felt to be hunted rather than, as City often were during his time as a coach there, the hunter. “We are not looking behind our shoulders. What we do is look forward, look in our lane and [at] what we can do.”
