Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed that William Saliba will remain absent for Tuesday's Premier League clash with Chelsea due to a back injury, and the Frenchman has shown no signs of progression in his recovery this week.
The Gunners' drop-off in form has coincided with Saliba's untimely absence since the centre-back sustained his problem against Sporting Lisbon in the Europa League last month.
Without the 2021-22 Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year marshalling the defence, Arsenal have failed to win any of their last four Premier League matches, conceding 11 goals in the process.
A 4-1 loss to Manchester City last week officially took the Premier League title out of Arsenal's hands, and they have been bumped down to second in the table thanks to the champions' 2-1 win over Fulham on Sunday.
Victory over Chelsea this week would temporarily propel the Gunners - who have already played a game more - back into first place, but they must continue to cope without breakthrough star Saliba.
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Speaking to reporters in his pre-game press conference, Arteta admitted that the 22-year-old had shown no signs of improvement amid growing fears that he could spend the rest of the season on the sidelines.
Arteta has refused to speculate over the length of Saliba's layoff, but he offered yet another pessimistic update to reporters on Monday morning as Rob Holding prepares for a seventh successive start in the backline.
"Pretty similar, he's not going to be involved tomorrow. We'll have to wait until the next game to see where we are, but he hasn't improved this week at all," Arteta said when questioned on Saliba's condition.
The former Saint-Etienne youngster is one of three Gunners players on the treatment table alongside Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny, both of whom have already been ruled out for the rest of the campaign with knee injuries.
Holding struggled to keep pace with City's star striker Erling Braut Haaland at the Etihad, as the Norwegian set up a pair of Kevin De Bruyne efforts either side of John Stones's header.
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Holding did net a well-taken consolation for the Gunners late on, but Haaland rubbed salt into the wounds with his customary goal deep into added time to prolong Arsenal's springtime misery.
While accepting that Pep Guardiola's side were superior last week, Arteta can still see the "fire" in the belly of his players, who must hope for the champions to slip up in order to reignite their title chances.
"I have not had to pick up the mood of the players, they keep the fire in the belly for tomorrow. It is very difficult to predict what they [Chelsea] are going to do but we have to prepare to win the game," Arteta added.
"It took a while to get over what happened at the Etihad. We don't want to accept that, but we have to recognise the fact that they took the game to a different level.
"We didn't reach that level, they were better than us and deserved to win the game. Now it [the title race] is not in our hands anymore. What is in our hands is to try to win the games we have left and the rest is down to City."
Arsenal won at Stamford Bridge for the third season running back in November thanks to a Gabriel Magalhaes effort, which marked their fifth victory from their last six matches versus Frank Lampard's side, the outlier being a 2-0 Emirates defeat in August 2021.
Ben Knapton
