“Arsenal will win Premier League but if Arteta keep starting that particular player in every games then I’m sure they’ll bottle it”: Man City coach Pep Guardiola has advised Mikel Arteta to stop starting one particular player who has always led the team down in big occasions
A concerned Ian Wright reckons the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel and William Saliba could leave Arsenal if silverware continues to evade them.
The Gunners have come up just short in the Premier League title race in the last two season and are currently six points behind Liverpool, with the league leaders also having a game in hand on Mikel Arteta’s side.
Arsenal are also out of both domestic cups after losing to Manchester United in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday. That means the Premier League and the Champions League are now Arteta’s only chance of landing a trophy this season.
The Spaniard won the FA Cup back in 2020 but the pressure could build on him if Arsenal end another season without a major trophy. And Wright has concerns that could leave Arsenal in a difficult spot with some of their top stars.
“We have to start thinking about Gabriel [Magalhaes], [William] Saliba and Saka. After this season, they’ve got two years [on their contract] left,” he said on his Wrighty’s House podcast.
“Even if Arsenal say to you, ‘Listen we want to start talking to you’, with a World Cup coming, managers and agents are going to say, ‘We just want to focus on our game now, trying to make sure we’re in great form for the World Cup’.
Wright then referenced the ongoing issue Liverpool have with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk all due to become free agents at the end of the season.
He continued: “Those guys are [then] going to be into the last year. We’re going to have a situation like Liverpool have got now.
“How long before their management teams say, ‘We need to see the ambition of this club’? Do any of those players want to end up not winning anything because the way it’s going at the moment…”
Wright believes one way Arsenal can get ahead of such a potential issue is simple: spend in the January transfer window to bolster their title bid
