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William Saliba Unhappy Over Slow Arsenal Start, to Leave in January?

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William Saliba has had a very slow start to his Arsenal career. He hasn’t featured for them this season in the Premier League fixtures. The 19-year-old defender’s appearances are currently limited to U23s at Emirates.

Arsenal are struggling at the moment with four consecutive home defeats in the league. They are currently at 15th and certainly in need of some hope.

William Saliba Situation and Edu’s Comments

The teenager joined the Gunners from Saint Etienne for £27 million in 2019. Unai Emery, then Arsenal manager, loaned him back to the French team to complete the last season there.

He joined Arsenal this season and was really excited to play for the London giants. But his excitement faded soon as he finds himself being frozen out of the squad.

Arsenal’s technical director Edu has hinted that the club may loan William Saliba in order to help him improve further. Reports claim that the 19-year-old Frenchman may be heading to his former club Saint Etienne again. But the defender wants to stay in England. So the situation of him at the Emirates is quite complicated.

Moreover, Saliba, in an Instagram post of Matteo Guendouzi, has said that he is being “locked out” at Arsenal at the moment. This clearly shows his unhappiness with the lack of involvement in North London.

Another report by Football.London suggests that manager Mikel Arteta does not want to play him as the Frenchman is an Unai Emery signing. He wants to completely dissociate himself from Unai Emery’s reign.

“He’s in a much better place. He’s feeling a lot more confident, his language is improving & he’s starting to understand much better what we’re doing physically. Things are progressively getting better and better.”

– Mikel Arteta on William Saliba’s Development

Our Take

William Saliba was a hot-prospect when he signed for Arsenal and the fans love the highly-rated defender. It is clear that he is not really happy at Arsenal at the moment.

Personally, he lost his mother recently so it became tougher for him to settle in England. Arteta also said he needed time to adapt to English football. So Saliba is expected to leave Arsenal on loan in the January transfer window.

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