William Saliba has admitted he hopes to bring back Arsenal back to the very top of the footballing world by winning several trophies starting with the Premier League this season. In the last decade, the Gunners have fallen away from the dominant pack in England that constantly chase domestic and European success, despite four FA Cups being won by the club since 2014.
A fifth one will not follow this year though after Mikel Arteta's men were knocked out in the fourth round by Manchester City, but the Gunners have other, more pressing, priorities this season. After a blistering start to the campaign, Arsenal firmly established themselves as being in the Premier League title picture shooting to the top of the league and with just one fixture left to play in February, they are still leading the race.
A manic first few months of 2023 has seen Arsenal stretch their lead over Manchester City at the top to eight points, only to see the gap cut down to zero just a few weeks later. Now, Arsenal have regained a slight advantage over their main title rivals after their late win against Aston Villa, with City dropping points against Nottingham Forest.
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Defensive solidity has been a key part of Arsenal's success this season with Oleksandr Zinchenko arriving in the summer while Saliba feels like a new signing after returning from a fruitful loan spell at Marseille.
The 21-year-old has formed a solid partnership with Gabriel Magalhaes which has allowed Arsenal to build foundations from the back and get the ball to their attacking players quickly. Having quality in abundance in a team fighting for silverware is, of course, key but a winning mentality throughout the squad is just as, if not more important, and judging by Saliba's ambitions for the club, it is certainly something that the Arsenal players have.
"I want to win everything possible here, and to put the club back on the very top. I want to win every title," he told Arsenal's official website.
“We all want to win the Premier League, and I’ve never won a trophy so that’s why I work every day, but we know we have 15 games left and it’s not going to be easy. We have to focus and never give up because the Premier League is hard.”
Speaking about the squads attributes specifically, he added: “We have a young team but we have a lot of leaders. Everyone can speak and if you do something bad, every player can tell you. It’s good to have a team like that - everyone understands and can talk.
“When we celebrate some goals, you can see that the team is so close, we are all friends and we are so happy to do everything together, so we have to keep going like that.
“We have a good mentality; even when we had some moments where we drew or lost, we kept believing and remained positive, and that's why we won on Saturday [against Aston Villa].”
In a perhaps somewhat surprising move, Arteta handed Saliba his full league debut at Arsenal on the opening day of the Premier League season against Crystal Palace. Missing just 14 minutes since that game, Saliba has never looked back sand he was full of praise for Arteta, explaining how he drives him on to be a better player.
He said: “Before the game, he always talks well and when you get on the pitch, you want to do well because the way he speaks makes you want to fight. You can see that he trusts me.
“What you see on the pitch is the same inside the training ground. He loves his job and he gives us that feeling, and it’s good to have a coach like that."
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