Ahead of Arsenal’s clash against Crystal Palace on Saturday, manager Mikel Arteta discussed the development of winger Bukayo Saka and defender William Saliba in an exclusive interview with Eurosport. Here’s what the Gunners boss had to say:
On Bukayo Saka…
“I had a really positive feeling towards him right from the beginning, that I discussed with him. The way he was approaching his game, his mentality, his intelligence to make decisions, to make things happen. And then, the current day, he’s shown at his age to take the responsibility that he took in the team. He gave me every reason to back him up, to give him time and full trust to go and express himself.”
On William Saliba…
“His trajectory has been extremely consistent and he still has big room for improvement especially on his leadership skills in the team. The way you have to command the line, the way you make adjustments, to continue to develop his presence in the game. Not only when he is defending but in many other aspects [like] scoring more goals and being more efficient in the opponents’ box, looking to have more threat in his game in ball possession. There are a lot of things that we can still develop with him.”