With William Saliba, Arteta can comfortably deal with Manchester City’s threat, says Wayne Rooney.
Rooney, a Manchester United legend, believes that Arsenal defender William Saliba is the only Arsenal defender who can stop Haaland. Since joining Manchester City from Dortmund, the striker has proved unstoppable for Premier League defenders. He has already scored more than 40 goals in all competitions for the Cityzens. The Gunners go to the Etihad Stadium this Wednesday for a title-deciding encounter with the defending champions. As things stand, even after three consecutive Premier League draws, Arsenal is still at the top of the table, five points clear of Manchester City.
Even yet, Arsenal’s top-of-the-table position is under threat, as Manchester City has two games in hand, and if they win both, they will be at the top of the table for the first time in a long time. In any case, Arsenal can still hold on to first place by beating Manchester City this week and not losing or drawing the remaining games. One could argue that in order to beat City, they must devise a strategy to stop Erling Haaland. Rooney feels Arsenal, if William Saliba was in defence, would have had a chance to halt the Manchester City No.9.
Arteta on William Saliba injury: “He’s not progressing as quick as we hoped. We have to be delicate and we want to be very certain when we push him that he’s ready”. ⚪️🔴 #AFC
“Next week we will have more certainty”, he added. pic.twitter.com/4bBLHr2mC4
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) April 20, 2023
“How do they stop Erling Haaland? With William Saliba injured, there’s no prospect of matching his pace and power individually, and the only way is to go out and try to impose their own game,” said Rooney to the Times.
Aside from halting Haaland, it is worth mentioning the England great is emphasising Arsenal’s offence must be at its best to break down the Manchester City defenders by utilising stars such as Saka, Jesus, Trossard, and Gabriel Martinelli.
“Arsenal should focus on how to expose those City defenders rather than focus too much on Haaland. The mindset needs to be: nobody thought we’d be here, and now we’re playing for the title, so let’s go and take it,” added Rooney. “City can be vulnerable when you hit them in the transition, and you saw it against Bayern Munich, particularly when Leroy Sane should have scored after Bayern won possession and broke on them.
“These are the opportunities you can get against City, and Arsenal have the players to capitalise in a way that Bayern didn’t — the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, and Gabriel Jesus.”
The game between Manchester City and Arsenal will be decided by how well each team defends, and hopefully, Arteta will have Saliba available.
Paul Hays
Arteta proud of our comeback after Arsenal 3-3 Southampton
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Arsenal will won the game
We will lose against city by at least 5 goals.
We will lose to Newcastle by at least 3 goals
We will lose to Chelsea by 1 goal
We will win the rest.
I have spoken
Lol, not much optimism here.. 🙁 🙂
Yeah, I was for our previous 3 games and look where that got us.
Maybe if I anticipate losses the universe will throw us a bone the weekend.
Hope so sws! 🙏
So you have! But have you also THOUGHT?
Saliba is out for the season.
Where did you source this information GB?
Sky Sports “Fear” he could miss the rest of the season..
With the amount of negativity from the club and media it’s pretty obvious to me. The fact he’s not trained for a few weeks is also a pointer.
I was going to post a similar comment.from what I’ve been reading,hearing/listening including from MA.his chances to play again this season are slim to none.
The Mail is reporting “structural damage” which could lead to a long-term layoff if he plays again this season.
WOW!
I thought he would be back for the Newcastle game. Considering key injuries (Saliba and Tomiyasu and of course Jesus for a large part of the season) it is not a steep hill but 8000 m peaks in succession.
If we are to win the league we need to climb Mount Everest followed by K2 and then followed by the Kachenjunga without breaks.
Rooney is correct to say we have no chance if we sit back.
To have any real chance, we need to dominate possession and take the game to City. It is possible too; we did it in the home game against them but silly mistakes killed us,but not the overall game.
However, it is abundantly obvious that Saliba will not play, as no player who has failed to play for all those weeks can possibly come into a match at City and expect to play well, even were he to be fit, which he clearly is not.
Essentially, it comes down to have we the necessary collective belief, or not!
There is no way we are going to dominate City at the Etihad for 90 mins. We tried to at Anfield but we crumbled in the 2nd half. In fact getting an early goal may just be the catalyst to wake the City players up. Therefore, I think, our game plan should be more defensive with a lot of counter attack. This is how Liverpool and United were able to defeat them. The only problem is our attackers are not well coached on counterattacking football but, still, we have the resources to do a lot of damage. Our front 3 should still be Martinelli, Saka and Jesus. Trossard, Nketiah or Nelsen can come on in the second half to replaces any leggy attackers. I also feel we need 4 midfielders: Jorginho and Partey in a double pivot, and Ode and xhaka playing further ahead. We should aim for a draw as City can still lose points in 2 matches down the line. The title race is still very much alive. My opinion.
One player can not deal with Haaland, it needs to be a collective.
If it was one player, im sure Gabriel is up for the fight.
Ask Xhaka to do a man marking… I know who money would be on if he lasted 90 mins🤣
I doubt there is a player on the planet who could man mark Haaland. It needs more than that.
No… one player does not make a team.
What we need is the team to perform for the 90 minutes we know that they are capable off and let fate do the rest.
The pressure is off so let’s go and do what we are good at… win football matches and don’t look back.
The worst thing Arsenal could do is put on four centre halves plus Jorginho and Xhaka. All we could expect are a succession of aimless clearances which City would inevitably recover and sooner or later score from, leading to us totally panicking and then the deluge. We have to take them on.