Saliba opens up on his time at Arsenal and admits he was ‘not physically up to speed’

William Saliba has admitted that due to a number of factors including the French league finishing early last season, he was not physically up to speed earlier in the campaign, according to French television channel Telefoot via football.london. 

In an interview with RMC, the Frenchman said that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta judged him in just two and a half games and told him he was not ready to play for the Gunners. These comments made it seem like he was being critical of the way he was treated by the Spaniard.

His interview with Telefoot provides more context and makes it seem like Arteta was absolutely right to arrive at the decision that Saliba was not ready to play for the North London side.

Saliba attributes a lack of training in the last few months of the 2019/20 season and the inability to play regular football due to the French league ending early as reasons for his poor physical fitness. He said he was physically knocked out after playing two and a half friendly games for the Gunners because he had not played football for a while before that. 

On his physical condition, Saliba said:

“Several things went wrong. The first is that in 2019-20, Ligue 1 finished early, I was at home in isolation, barely running a kilometre. I didn’t have physical fitness.”

“After I went back to Saint-Etienne, knowing that I could play the French Cup final a few weeks later. After two or three weeks, I couldn’t train with them as I did not know if I was going to play the final. The clubs were failing to find an agreement.”

“Finally, in the end I went to Arsenal, but as they were finishing the Premier League, I trained on my own. A week and a half later, they went on holiday, so I was training on my own for another two weeks.”

“They came back. There were two or three friendly matches — well, training alone does not replace matches… I played two and a half friendly games, I was physically knocked out, I was not up to speed.”

“I thought the coach (Arteta) was going to make me continue so that I find my rhythm. He said I wasn’t ready, which is normal — after six months staying at home during the lockdown and then playing, I couldn’t be ready and I needed to continue to work.”

“After, the coach said I wasn’t ready — it’s like that, it’s football.”

The 19-year-old was left out of the Gunners’ Premier League and Europa League squads this season and did not play a single minute of competitive football for the first team. Last month, he joined Nice on loan for the rest of the season. He has thrived for the French side and was named the club’s Player of the Month for January.

Arteta has made it clear that he wants the French central defender to get regular game time and continue his progression. He sees Saliba as an important part of Arsenal’s future and is counting on him to return to the club in the summer and integrate with the squad in pre-season. He said:

“He will come back for pre-season and he will be with us. Hopefully he will come back after playing a number of games and his performance raising and his development progressing in the right way. That’s why we made that decision.”

“I know that sometimes it’s difficult to explain or understand after the money that the club has spent trying to bring him in, to send him on loan.”

“But a lot of things have happened to him. He’s a long-term player for us and we need to protect him as well. And giving him three or four games is not enough.”

“For him he needs much more than that, because what happened in the last 18 months, he’s been through some personal problems as well that we have to try to help him and stay as close as possible to him.”

“And now he needs to play, play and play and enjoy his profession as well. And in order to do that I think we found the right club with him.”

“He’s very happy to go there now. Hopefully he can enjoy his football and be ready for us for next season.”

The Gunners boss wants to have a pool of four or five central defenders next season and Saliba is very likely to be a part of that group. Rob Holding, Gabriel and Pablo Mari are certain to be at the club next season. 

David Luiz’s contract with the North London side will expire in the summer and his future remains uncertain. Mustafi and Sokratis left the club in the January transfer window and the futures of Callum Chambers and Dinos Mavropanos are unclear.

Saliba’s future is at Arsenal and as long as he continues to impress in Nice, the future looks very bright for the 19-year-old and the North London club.