Arteta has challenged his team to step up amid the absences and, before Saturday’s Premier League clash against Leicester City, revealed that star centre-back Saliba, 23, is willing to step up.
Saliba began his career as a forward at AS Bondy and was coached by Kylian Mbappé’s father, Wilfried. He dropped to centre-back as a teenager at Montfermeil and has played in the position since.
"Willy always says, ‘I’ll play as a striker, I’ll play,’ " Arteta said.
"Willy is so funny, straight away it was one of his reactions. It’s true as well that he played there. He used to score a lot of goals.
“But probably a lot of players played there when they were younger. All the options are welcome. We are going to have to be creative.”
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this team is truly the invertibles.
I bet you he told that story on purpose to misdirect them from Merino. He’s done it again
I say we give it a go once Ben’s back to full fitness. Apart from anything else, it will Show Saliba is being heard and might help to get him to sign a new contract with us. At the very least, if we find ourselves in a situation where we are up by a couple of goals with 20-30 minutes left, move him up there and see what he can do.
I like this idea. We should hold more tryouts. Saliba wants a go, we’ve seen Merino already, and Rice could probably hammer a shot in.
So without Saliba, it’s MLS - Saliba - White/Timber - Timber/White?
Merino wasn’t really playing before this so he doesn’t necessarily need replacing
Rice is probably the one where we don’t have the personnel to replace him, unfortunately. He also needs a break :(
