Mikel Arteta speaks about William Saliba injury & Arsenal's title challenge
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed that William Saliba will not be available for the Gunners' Premier League clash with Chelsea this week.
The centre-back was forced off during the Europa League last 16 second leg clash with Sporting CP in March because of a back issue and has missed all six Premier League games since.
Without Saliba in the starting XI, the Gunners have seen their form dip dramatically. Since wins over Crystal Palace and Leeds, they've now gone four games without a win. Arsenal were thoroughly thumped 4-1 by title rivals Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, which coupled with City's win over Fulham on Sunday means that Arteta's team now sit in second place in the league table.
When asked in his pre-match press conference ahead of Tuesday's clash with a rather woeful Chelsea team about whether or not Arsenal fans can expect Saliba to return for the game, Arteta replied: "He's not going to be involved tomorrow. We will have to wait until the next game to see where we are."
Arteta also discussed the title race ahead of the game against Chelsea, admitting that the fate of the championship is no longer in his team's hands: "[We have to] win, that is what we have to do.
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"We have achieved what was difficult to achieve and we can still achieve the Premier League. We are Arsenal football club, we have to be here to win every single trophy. The demands have to be there.
"Now it is not in our hands, what is in our hands is to try and win the games."
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On this edition of The Chronicles of a Gooner, part of the 90min podcast network, Harry Symeou is joined by Arsenal legend Ray Parlour to talk about the season so far, recorded the day before facing Manchester City. If you can't see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!