Mikel Arteta discusses if William Saliba will be able to play for Arsenal again this season

Off to Gail Davies, who has been talking to Michael Arteta at Arsenal today. Gail, good afternoon to you. Arsenal against Newcastle. It's a really big one on Super Sunday. How are they looking ahead of that trip to St James's? Yeah, very good afternoon to you, Nick. In terms of the subject in the press conference, injuries once again dominated for so long, so settled at the back this season, Arsenal. But in the last few weeks, they've, of course, lost William Saliba and Gabriel had to come off after 85 minutes and was replaced by Rob Holding in that victory over Chelsea. So that's the heart of their central defence potentially missing for this one. This is what Arteta had to say. We'll have to see tomorrow how he is. But yeah, he could not finish the game, so that was obviously a big sign for us. And we'll have to see how he is tomorrow. And Saliba, any update, any progress? Not a lot of progress. He's feeling better every single day, but he's not been able still to have any activity around the first team. So we don't expect him to be with us. And with Saliba, does there come a point where you just stick your hands up and say, OK, that's it for the season. Let's just get him better and ready to start next season because you've only got four games. We are not there yet today because we're always hopeful and players are always pushing to play. But if that's the case at some stage, we will announce that. But hopefully that won't be the case. With him, is it just more rest that he needs or is there something else that needs to be done to kind of fix him? It's about the healing process. Pain-wise and things that he can do now off the pitch I think is in a good place. But obviously we have to build that capacity again to have the right impact, the right load and be in good condition to train and play for the team. Titles out of their hands now, Gael. A point behind City who have played a game or does Arteta think there's still a title race? He absolutely does believe. I actually had another chat with him afterwards to run on Super Sunday match. He still wakes up every day thinking, what can I do today to make sure the trophy ends up in our hands at the end of the season? But we know the reality, don't we? City at this point of the season are very, very hard to stop. Arteta knows that too. Remember, he was part of the coaching setup and he's been around Pep and this Manchester City side as they have the title in their sights. All he can keep saying to his side is we do our job and just hope and pray that there is one more slip up from City before the end of the season. I don't know what's going to happen. They have won a lot of games in the last few months, that's for sure. And if they do so, they will be ready to win the league. And if they don't, then we have to be ready to win our games to be there. Can you think of any examples of when you were a coach at City, particularly in that last season when it was so neck and neck with Liverpool, where you did feel the pressure a little bit at City, but you did think, you know, we might lose them? This is more down to the players as well. I don't know how they are thinking right now, what their focus is. They will try to win every game. We'll try to do the same and see what happens. Well, for many, when Arsenal went to Newcastle on the 16th of May last year, it was a game that really defined their season. They just lost to Tottenham and that defeat against Newcastle saw their chances of the Champions League just slip away. A starting point, perhaps, and one that the players will want to prove a point from, you guess, on Sunday. As a group, they've come an awful long way, haven't they, in that time? And Sunday afternoon against Newcastle will be the time they can go out and show everybody that that's the case. Indeed, Gail. Thanks a lot.