David Luiz will be leaving Arsenal at the end of this season and everyone is certain that manager Mikel Arteta will look to bring in a new centre-back during the summer window.
Luiz joined Arsenal from Chelsea in 2019 and these past two seasons, the defender has not done any major justice to his talents. At Chelsea, he had played in 248 matches, scoring 18 goals and providing 12 assists as well. But at Arsenal, the Brazilian has featured in only 73 matches out of which 20 have come this season in the Premier League.
But despite his average impact at the Emirates, Mikel Arteta was full of praise for the 34-year-old defender.
Talking about Luiz’s exit, Arteta said: “He is a player that has won everything in football and has earned every right to do so because of who he is as a player and as a person. I had the privilege to work with him for 18 months, which I really enjoyed.
“We got on really well, we had some great moments together, he has been really helpful, someone that we really like and appreciate so much, so I just say thank you to him and wish him the best of luck in his next chapter because I am sure, knowing David, that he will have many more to come as a player, and in the future, somehow related to the game.”
Some Arsenal fans are actually happy with the prospect of David Luiz leaving the club since Arsenal will surely try to fill that gap by signing a new centre-back. But it looks like Mikel Arteta actually has other plans.
Many might have forgotten but the Gunners also have William Saliba at the club who was sent out on loan to Nice at the start of the new year. And Arteta has made it clear that the 20-year-old could be in contention to get a regular spot in the first-team setup.
The manager told the press: “First of all we signed a player with an incredible talent, a proven talent and performance level in this league, and this season has been difficult and I take full responsibility because I have to be the one getting the best out of him and we had moments but not to the level that he did before.
“We are as a coaching staff, obviously following his progression, watching his games and in contact with him. It’s not an ideal world [due to Covid] to feel that you still belong here and you can have a face-to-face relationship, but we try to do it in the best possible way.
“I would have liked for [the loan move] to have happened at the start of the season. We had eight central defenders, which is unheard of, but we didn’t find the right moment, the right club, the right agreement to do that and in my opinion, we could have used those four or five months in a better way.
“When we finish the season, we will sit down and discuss the roles of every member of the squad and how they can fulfil that role and he’s our player so he’ll be back here for sure. After that, we will make a decision based on the agreement of the role that each player is going to have in the squad.”
William Saliba has turned out to be a failed project for Arsenal since his move to the club in 2019 and so far, all he has done is spend time out on loan deals, first to his former club St Etienne and then to Nice.
While he has done pretty decently in the Ligue 1 over the past few months but we doubt if he will be a major upgrade to David Luiz. But if Arsenal don’t buy a new defender in the summer we can’t blame the manager either since the North London club are not likely to play in Europe next season and also they already have so many centre-backs at their disposal.