The Frenchman Saliba has been out of action for the past month after being taken off in our Europa League game against Sporting CP,
And has missed our last four matches.
Arteta was initially hopeful William could be in contention to step up his recovery this week, but now has ruled out that possibility.
Injury update
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, he said:
“The picture hasn’t changed from last week. Regarding William, we still have to wait a little bit more.
“He’s not progressing as quickly as we hoped and it is a bit delicate so we want to be certain that when we push him,
he’s ready to absorb the load and the risk that we’ll take, and that’s not possible at the moment.”
When pressed on whether Saliba will be available for any of our final seven games of the campaign, Mikel added:
“I don’t know, it’s a bit early to know. Probably next week we’ll have more certainty.
“There is some evolution,
he’s doing more activity but is not there yet to start to throw him into the pitch at the level the sessions demand to compete in this league.”
Arsenal could be without two key defenders for their crunch Premier League clash with Man City next week.
The Gunners lead Pep Guardiola’s side by four points at the top of the table. Mikel Arteta’s men could extend that advantage on city on Friday night with a win over bottom-of-the-table Southampton.
City are not in league action this weekend as they take on Sheffield United in the last four of the FA Cup on Saturday.
It means the Blues’ next league match is the Etihad Stadium visit of Arsenal next week,
a match which Guardiola labelled a decider in the wake of his side’s win over Leicester City last weekend.
