William Saliba makes Mikel Arteta admission as Arsenal loanee explains reason for Nice switch

William Saliba has claimed he was not given an opportunity to fight for a spot in Mikel Arteta’s first team before being sent out on loan this month.

The 19-year-old has joined Nice until the end of the season, but admitted he would have rather fought for a starting berth in north London.

Speaking at his official unveiling on Friday, the defender said: “My first six months were difficult, because I was coming from six months where I wasn’t able to train because I was at home and couldn’t train outside, couldn’t play.

“I arrived there as they were finishing the league season, so I was training alone.

“As soon as they came back from holidays, we quickly had the first friendly matches where I lacked rhythm and was a bit insufficient physically.

“The coach immediately told me that I was not ready. I would have at least liked to have a chance to rediscover my rhythm. But this is football, it’s like that.”

Arteta spoke out about Saliba in his Thursday press conference, explaining how it was crucial for his development to spend the rest of the 2020/21 campaign out on loan.

“Yes, well, we signed a big project that we had some issues with because he hasn’t played enough football in the last eighteen months,” the Spaniard said.

“At that age and in the development phase he is at that is crucial.

“And I was very conscious when he came back, when he didn’t do the step that he had to do before joining us that to start a relationship with a new manager, with a new club, with new team-mates in a situation where he is not having any game time it’s really difficult and I think it’s really damaging for the future.”

The Gunners boss added: “He will come back for pre-season and he will be with us.

“Hopefully he will come back after playing a number of games and his performance raising and his development progressing in the right way. That’s why we made that decision.”

Saliba endured a difficult debut for the Ligue 1 side on Wednesday night as they fell to a 2-0 defeat against Brest.

While neither goal was directly his fault, Saliba was part of a three-man defence named by Adrian Ursea.