Mikel Arteta’s squad place high importance on every game, of course, and William Saliba feels that this one is no different.
“Last season we didn’t lose against them, so I don’t think about revenge like this, but they won the league last season and the season before,” he said. “It’s more about us because the Premier League is not just against City, it’s against all the teams, so we have to be focused on ourselves because there are a lot of games.
“We all want to achieve something. Winning this Premier League is not easy, but when you finish twice second, you want to win. We will give everything, even more than last season, because we don’t want to finish second, third or fourth. We want to win this league and we’ll give everything.”
Mikel Saliba
Arteta has been the manager responsible for our constant progression over the last five years, helping us to get closer and closer to the top prize each season.
“He’s a really good coach and we’re so happy to have him here,” Saliba added. “He helps us a lot to grow, especially a player like me. I’ve learned a lot of things with him and I’ve become a better player since I’ve worked with him, so we’re so happy to have him and I’m sure we will win some titles with him.”
Saliba is now one of the first names on the teamsheet, but it wasn’t plain sailing right from the start as he had loan spells at Saint-Etienne, Nice and Marseille before settling into our lineup.
“I didn’t know exactly if I’d be a key part but I wanted to be where I am,” he explained. “It wasn’t always easy at the beginning, but football is like this. You have to work, sometimes you have bad moments, sometimes you have good moments. You have to stay strong and I didn’t give up. I worked a lot, even when I was on loan, and I’ve been back here for two years and I’m so happy. I’ll keep working to become better.
“I still have goals and ambition because I haven’t won anything. I’ve had some good seasons, but you need to win some trophies and that’s what I want to do with Arsenal and the national team.”
Gabriel Saliba
Asked for the secret behind the success of his stubborn partnership with Gabriel at centre-back, Saliba explained how natural it feels to play alongside the Brazilian.
“There’s no secret,” he said. “I’m good, he’s good. We both speak French and we play now in our third season together. We know each other so well and it’s a pleasure to play every game with him. We grow together because he’s young as well, so it’s really good to have him by my side.”
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