Arteta confirms Arsenal seeking replacement for injured Saliba, EPL begins Friday

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed the club is actively pursuing a new defender to address a "specific issue" in their backline. The need arises from William Saliba's long-term injury and a general shortage of options, which the team experienced last season.

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We are really active in the market, I think I mentioned that a few days ago. The ambition is to improve the squad. We have a really specific issue in the backline, especially with the long-term injury of Wilo [Saliba] and the fact that we miss one more defender; that’s clear.

"We are really active in the market," Arteta stated in a club statement. "The ambition is to improve the squad. We have a really specific issue in the backline, especially with the long-term injury of Wilo [Saliba] and the fact that we miss one more defender; that’s clear."

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I’m always positive, I’m always confident. It’s something that I cannot control. It doesn’t depend just on us, so we are willing to improve that area and we’re going to try our best to achieve that.

Arteta expressed confidence that the club is doing everything possible to secure a signing, but acknowledged that the final outcome is not solely within his control. "I’m always positive, I’m always confident. It’s something that I cannot control. It doesn’t depend just on us, so we are willing to improve that area and we’re going to try our best to achieve that," he said.

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Yes, they’re ready to be involved, yes.

While the search for a defender continues, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice are fit and available for Arsenal's Premier League opener. However, Jurrien Timber remains sidelined and is not yet back in full team training. Arteta emphasized the importance of maintaining a deep squad to manage the demands of the season and learn from past experiences where injuries in key areas impacted performance.

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Because I would like to have the squad as big as possible because we know what we are fighting for, how long this is and will learn again from the past, especially last year, when we got in some difficult situations and we had two or three injuries in the same area of the pitch. So the deeper the squad that we have, the better.