By virtue of the fact that Granit Xhaka could be found in a centre-back position during Arsenal’s defeat on Sunday night, you could argue that Mikel Arteta is struggling for options in that department.
And you’d be right – even more so now after Arteta confirmed that David Luiz, who came off injured in the loss to Leicester City, would be monitored over the next 48 hours to see if he’s fit to face Dundalk in the Europa League on Thursday.
With Rob Holding and Pablo Mari still absent, it gives the Arsenal boss a bit of a headache.
Arteta could’ve had a Nurofen in the form of William Saliba, but the Spaniard omitted the towering French defender from his Europa League squad in what now looks a bit of a blunder.
Saliba hasn’t been thrown into Premier League action yet, despite the club spending £27 million on him last summer, before loaning him back to Saint-Etienne for the 2019-20 campaign.
But with respect to Dundalk, if the 19-year-old is good enough for Ligue 1 then he’s good enough to face the Irish outfit and it would’ve been a perfect game to finally make his debut, 15 months after joining.
In Arteta’s defence, there was talk of Saliba being loaned out to the Championship at the time of omitting him from the Europa League squad but, by the same token, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, another centre-back, was also left out.
In other words, two players who Arteta now needs to select are ineligible for selection and it looks a tad shortsighted from the 38-year-old.
This is the former Manchester City assistant’s first full season in senior management, meaning hiccups and harsh lessons are inevitable.
But if he has to play Xhaka in central defence again on Thursday then it’s a lesson that Arteta will certainly learn from.
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