{"id":951423,"date":"2026-11-03T19:41:34","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T19:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951423\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T19:41:34","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T19:41:34","slug":"william-salibas-return-gives-mikel-arteta-selection-headache-at-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951423\/","title":{"rendered":"William Saliba’s return gives Mikel Arteta selection headache at Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arsenal<\/a> boss Mikel Arteta will soon have a big defensive dilemma.<\/p>\n

But it is one that will be both welcome to the Arsenal<\/a> boss and the envy of other top teams across the continent.<\/p>\n

That’s because William Saliba – a key figure in the Gunners’ title win last season – is back in training, having missed the entire campaign so far because of a back injury following his early withdrawal in France’s World Cup semi-final loss to Spain.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old has been one of the Premier League’s top defenders in recent seasons but – in his absence – summer signing Ezri Konsa has stepped in seamlessly to help Arsenal<\/a> back to the top of the table.<\/p>\n

Indeed, since Konsa’s arrival from Aston Villa<\/a> for \u00a355m, he and Gabriel Magalhaes have struck up a formidable partnership, with Arsenal<\/a> again boasting the league’s tightest defence, conceding just five goals in nine games.<\/p>\n

Saliba had been managing his back issue throughout last season but was sent to see a specialist after the World Cup. <\/p>\n

It was decided he did not need to undergo surgery but would require a lengthy rehabilitation. No timescale on his return was set. <\/p>\n

The France international had been doing individual training at Arsenal<\/a>‘s base but has now returned to full training before their Champions League meeting with Slavia Prague and then, a busy festive schedule looming. <\/p>\n

Saliba and regular partner Gabriel were a huge reason why the Gunners won the Premier League title for the first time in 22 years last season.<\/p>\n

Their partnership was the bedrock of Arteta’s team, which conceded only 27 league goals. Saliba was then named in the PFA team of the year for the fourth consecutive time. <\/p>\n

Arsenal<\/a> have always said that they will be cautious with Saliba’s return but his return to fitness will leave Arteta with some tough choices to make in his backline. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta will soon have a big defensive dilemma. But it is one that will be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-951423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}