“He had fewer touches than David Raya, he couldn’t even complete a single cross and was very bad with his tackles, he must be benched”- Arsenal icon Ian Wright told Mikel Arteta that he MUST finally bench “shaky” £190k-p/w star in the upcoming UCL match after his disastrous performance against Bournemouth- Not Jorginho, not Jesus and not Nketiah

Arsenal: Arteta must bench £190k-p/w star with fewer touches than Raya

One Arsenal player, in particular, is deserving of a night off when the champions league returns

A big week for Arsenal started in captivating fashion on Saturday afternoon as the Gunners swept aside Bournemouth with pure ease.

It was as comfortable an away performance as you could ever ask for as Mikel Arteta’s men ran away from the south coast with a 4-0 victory

Bukayo Saka opened the scoring with a header from close range before two penalties – one from Martin Odegaard and another from Kai Havertz (yes, he actually scored) – saw the game put beyond all doubt.

There was even room for Ben White to pop up with a rare goal, heading home from a late free-kick.

After Manchester City’s remarkable loss to Wolves, Arsenal have moved to within a point of the league-leading Citizens, who they face in a crunch match at the Emirates next Sunday.

That match is sandwiched by the return of the Champions League, with the Londoners set to face French opposition in Lens on Tuesday night.

With City to come, a degree of rotation is likely to be afforded in a few day’s time, with William Saliba one player who could sit out.

What’s the latest on William Saliba’s fitness?

The Frenchman missed the League Cup win over Brentford in midweek due to a niggle, with Arteta refusing to take any risk on his star centre-back.

Last season, a back problem curtailed the £190k-per-week defender’s season, and indeed ended any hopes Arsenal had of winning a first Premier League title since 2004. Rob Holding ended up being his deputy and we all know how that turned out.

Speaking after the 1-0 win over the Bees, Arteta said: “He has a knock… Let’s see how everybody is today. They weren’t selected for a reason. We need to assess them today….They weren’t fit enough to be in the squad [against Brentford], that’s it.”

Saliba returned to the squad against Bournemouth and kept a clean sheet, with it proving to be the type of game where he even had fewer touches than David Raya. However, he could well sit out again for the trip to Lens.

Should Saliba play against Lens?

If Arteta has any sense this is surely the ideal match to rest the France international.

The international break may be around the corner but the fact of the matter is that Arsenal cannot afford any injuries to their star men heading into such a critical encounter with Man City in seven days from now.

If Saliba was to get injured then either Ben White or Takehiro Tomiyasu could deputise in central defence, but no one quite offers the “world-class” qualities – as dubbed by journalist Jason Soutar – that the club’s number 2 provides.

Saliba doesn’t rank particularly highly in a number of defensive metrics this season when compared to positionally similar players in the top flight, largely because Arsenal haven’t had a huge amount of defending to do, but his composure and ability to play out from the back is second to very few.

The 22-year-old sits in the top 12% of centre-backs in the Premier League this season for pass completion, the best 23% for progressive passes and the top 20% for carries, via FBref.

Remarkably, he is yet to be dribbled past once in the league this season, boasting a 100% success rate when it comes to dribblers tackled. An irremovable force, he is one of few defenders in the world that you’d fancy getting any change from Erling Haaland.

An injury, therefore, would be disastrous and he simply has to be benched for the club’s forthcoming Champions League tie.