William Saliba reveals Guendouzi encouraged Arsenal move
Arsenal may try to call back William Saliba from his season-long loan at Saint-Etienne in January in order to bolster Mikel Arteta’s defensive options. Saliba joined Arsenal from the Ligue 1 club for £27million in July but was loaned back to his boyhood club for the 2019/20 campaign as part of the deal.
Mikel Arteta may make January transfer request at Arsenal to speed up William Saliba move (Image: Getty)
David Luiz, the most regular starter at centre-back, arrived for £8m from Chelsea in the summer but has failed to resolve the side’s backline woes.
The Brazilian struck up a clumsy centre-back partnership alongside Sokratis Papastathopoulos at the start of the season with Calum Chambers and Shkodran Mustafi also proving unconvincing in the heart of defence.
Rob Holding, who almost claimed the club captaincy earlier this season, is still not operating at full fitness but is another candidate at centre-back.
Konstantinos Mavropanos has come into the matchday squads under Arteta but has also had his troubles with injury since signing in January 2018.
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A late collapse against Chelsea on the weekend including a rare blunder from goalkeeper Bernd Leno cost Arsenal, but Arteta did not slam his defenders.
“I don't think [it's a lack of concentration],” Arteta said regarding Chelsea’s goal in the last 10 minutes.
“We're 1-0 up, pretty comfortable even if we were defending much deeper than I like.
“I cannot think about any clear chances for Chelsea before that.
William Saliba trained with Arsenal for two weeks before leaving for Saint-Etienne (Image: Getty)