Arsenal nearly won the Premier League last season, even taking the title fight to the final match day, but things didn’t go their way since Manchester City, who were to drop points in order for the North Londoners to win the league, didn’t.
But that’s in the past, and the focus now is on how much better the North Londoners can be next season to eventually win the Premier League trophy. With the transfer window open, the club is already attracting top talent, with Ricardo Calafiori set to become the second summer signing after David Raya.
Aside from new additions, Mikel Arteta must find an effective approach to rotating the personnel at his disposal. Overreliance on specific players is one of the most common criticisms levelled against the Arsenal boss. His overreliance on William Saliba cannot continue.
Last season, the Frenchman played every minute of Arsenal’s league run, and he went on to play a key role in France’s Euro 24 campaign. Despite his talent, Saliba is not a machine; he should maintain his important role in the upcoming season, but it’s important to manage his workload early in the season as he recovers from playing over 60 games since the start of last season.
Many are concerned about Jurrien Timber’s role in the upcoming season, particularly with Riccardo Calafiori’s arrival. Why not have the Dutchman play as a right-sided centerback in a few fixtures? I believe he should be considered for the post to help manage Saliba’s game time. Paul Merson revealed in a PL banter with Jeff Stelling that an injury to Saliba will drastically reduce Arsenal’s chances of winning the league, just as losing Van Dijk would be a big problem for our rivals Liverpool.
“If they were to lose Van Dijk that would be a big blow,” Stelling said on the Football’s Greatest Podcast.
“Oh end of, a Rolls Royce of a defender, a phenomenal defender. It’s like Arsenal. If Arsenal lost Saliba, who I thought was the defender of the tournament, he was amazing, I would say no chance,” Merson responded.
Merson’s assertions are not unwarranted; during the 2022–23 season, it was evident that the Gunners had lost the title fight after Saliba suffered a season-ending injury. Without him on the pitch, the Gunners’ defence fell apart, and with it our challenge for the title.
Do you think we now have enough cover for Saliba with Calafiori and Timber back in the squad?
Daniel O
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We didnt win the title with him so its a dumb question to start with. Defenders usually do play every game because they cover the least amount of ground especially in our system.
That’s a rude comment
And it’s not “dumb” question at all.
He is just asking a scenario where Saliba is injured and whether we can win without Saliba. He’s asking if our defence will still be strong enough without him to win the title.
If we make the right improvements this summer we can do it, we’re not that far away from MC. It’s annoying that every signing we go for, Chelsea and Barcelona are in the mix. I don’t see how this is possible as both clubs are on the verge of facing FFP sanctions.
I hope you’re right but a couple of points to bear in mind:
1) Arsenal isn’t that far away from City as you say but that assumes Arsenal strengthen their squad, but City doesn’t. In absolute terms Arsenal are likely to be stronger in 2024-25 over 2023-24 (how much stronger remains to be seen). But it’s the relative improvement (to City, primarily) that matters – and we don’t know how much stronger they’ll be yet. It’s very unlikely they’ll be weaker.
2) I don’t know about Chelsea as their finances are a mystery to almost everyone I think, but Barcelona is actually very close to returning to financial stability (they’re at the end of FFP sanctions, not the beginning as you suggest) and expect to do so shortly. They’re reportedly just about to sign the biggest shirt deal in football history with Nike, for example.
it’s excellent question, and one I suspect Edu/Arteta have been asking themselves with the attention on defenders in this window so far
Saliba injury was definitely a factor in PL 2022/23, we lost momentum and confidence and eventually got hauled in by Man C, the big drop if quality to Saliba’s cover from the bench at that time an issue they have looked address with Timber and now Calafiori, but is it enough?
Marc Guehi’s name keeps coming up, in terms of PL proven near the top, will be expensive of course
not sure Arsenal has enough FFP/PSR transfer budget for Defensive Midfield rebuild, Marc Guehi and big-name striker – something has to give, choices to be made, and some angry fans no doubt
To be honest our 2022/23 title bottle job had little to so with Saliba getting injured. With or without him we weren’t going to win it as the whole team lost its nerves. Saka was all over the place, Partei absolutely disintegrated in front of our eyes, Ode became anonymous, Martinelli, Jesus were like headless chickens etc..
It was nerves and psychological.
look you are probably right, that we were not going to win it anyway, we surprised everyone including ourselves being on top for as long we were
there were so trigger moments to our mental loss of belief, one was the Xhaka moment when 2 nil up at Anfield, another was seeing Holding filling in for Saliba at centre back
i just remember preying every week that Saliba would recover and give us hope again, perhaps why I felt Saliba injury hard
I think we would win it, with Calafiori coming in our defense has enough cover, in fact I think it’s world class and probably the best in the world. We have the experience of White and talents of Timber for cover there, am really not worried at all.
The only question I have is Arteta, is he willing to rotate and try others there ? Because when Saliba gets Injured we will need match fit and accustomed players ready
Saliba’s aerial ability is the best among other CBs’ at Arsenal and I don’t think Calafiori is as good in that aspect since he’s smaller than Saliba, so we’d likely be screwed if Saliba gets a long-term injury
I just hope Magalhaes will be fit to deputize Saliba for the sweeper CB role
Calafiori is very good in the air check his stats, I think he was the best in Serie A last season. He might be a bit shorter than Saliba but he’s still a very tall guy at about 1,87m
I hope you’re right, but his performance vs Spain in Euro wasn’t good
I have seen Calafiori going for headers and man he looks so agile and clean..
His body frame is a bit more lean and light so when he leaps he just towers over everyone.
I’d like to see how he will fare against towering CF in EPL
There are many ways that his absence could be compensated for with the current flexible squad (assuming no continuing LB weakness). It would be less likely but we could still win the league.
If we got say Ghehi, then yes.