Mikel Arteta Reveals His Regrets Over William Saliba

Mikel Arteta Reveals His Regrets Over William Saliba

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has revealed regretting leaving William Saliba out of Arsenal's Europa League squad.

The Gunners are facing a defensive crisis ahead of Thursday's game with Dundalk – and the Frenchman will not be able to fill in.

Having dropped the 19-year-old from of his 25-man Europa League squad, Arteta was left ruing the decision.

The Spaniard told reporters: “I feel really bad for William Saliba.

“Because we had so many central defenders, we decided to leave him out of the squad which was really hurtful for me to do.

“I was hoping that Pablo [Mari] would be back in two weeks but he had a setback.

“And then we don't have Pablo and we don't have William when he's fit and available to play.

“But when you make those decisions, you can't always think about every possible outcome.”

Still yet to make his debut, Saliba's absence has been described as an adaptation period, after a long spell out of the game during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

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But Arteta is optimistic he can soon step in and live up to his £27million price tag.

This article was most recently revised and updated 4 years ago

Efe Bridget is a writer at GoalBall. She is a graduate of Mass Communication with 12 years of experience working with reputable publications.