UEL: Arteta Regrets William Saliba Exclusion From Squad List

Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta has expressed his regrets at leaving defender William Saliba out of his Europa League squad with the latest injury crisis to his team's backline.

AllNews understands that four (4) of Arsenal defenders are currently out with injury ahead of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday.

Saliba and Sokratis Papastathopoulos were not registered for the competition, and with Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, Pablo Mari, and David Luiz all injured, Arteta is left with Shkodran Mustafi and Gabriel Magalhaes as his only centre-backs for Thursday's match against Irish side Dundalk.

Saves. Stops. Shots.

✅ Preparations for @DundalkFC

The best of today's #UEL session ?

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) October 28, 2020

"I feel really bad for William Saliba," Arteta told reporters.

"Because we had so many central defenders, we decided to leave him out of the squad, which was really hurtful for me to do."

Saliba, who spent last season on loan at St Etienne, has yet to make his Arsenal debut but Arteta said the French teenager is making steady progress in training.

"He's feeling a lot more confident around the place, his language is improving and he's starting to understand much better what we're doing physically," he added.