Arsenal make decision over permanent exit for William Saliba in January

“I’m fed up with the situation because, as you could see, we tried to find a way in the last few days to give him some football,” Arteta said.

“I explained that he needed that transition year when we decided to buy him and send him on loan to Saint-Etienne. For many reasons, that didn’t happen – he didn’t have that transition year and he needs to go through that.

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“At the moment, with the amount of central defenders we have in the team, we had to leave him out of the squad, which is painful. Now we have some injuries and we could have used him but this is part of the profession.”

Saliba has been restricted to appearances for Arsenal’s under-23s and U21s, having played twice in the EFL Trophy and five times in Premier League 2.