Mikel Arteta does not view Arsenal’s growing options at centre back as a concern. Instead, he believes the return of William Saliba, alongside Gabriel and Ezri Konsa, gives the squad a chance to manage the season more effectively.

Konsa, who started most of England’s run to a third-place finish at the tournament, was signed in August with the understanding that Saliba would be unavailable for several months. Since then, he has settled into the Arsenal line-up and has been consistently reliable.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after Arsenal arrived in Czechia for their Champions League meeting with Slavia Prague, Arteta suggested Saliba is now close to being available whenever the manager chooses to call on him.

“He’s in, and he’s in like anybody else,” Arteta explained. “All the preparation has been done to measure all the loads and all the steps that he had to do to minimize that risk. Now he’s in a really good place. He’s built the capacity that we needed and now it’s about giving him minutes.

“A center back normally has to be able to play 90 minutes and that’s why all the preparation that we’ve done to build him.” Saliba himself, Arteta said, is “very desperate” to get back and will have the “right amount of minutes very soon.”

For Saliba to regain his place, one of Gabriel or Konsa would need to step aside. Arteta said that having all three available is a “luxury” Arsenal have not enjoyed earlier in the season.

“I wouldn’t call it a problem,” he said. “We can talk about problems that are very different to that one.”

Arteta has long spoken about the physical strain placed on players across four club competitions, plus international commitments. He believes a deeper pool at centre back can help Arsenal rotate more intelligently and handle the demands of the schedule with greater control.

Arsenal left Anfield with three valuable points, but Piero Hincapié also found room for a pointed dig at Virgil van Dijk on social media after the final whistle.

The defender’s three-word jab appeared to reference a post Van Dijk made in January, following a goalless meeting with Arsenal. That earlier message had drawn attention to the competition emblem, with the Liverpool captain posting while his side were still champions. The post has since been flooded with comments, many apparently from Arsenal supporters, who have continued to remind Van Dijk of it.

Van Dijk’s January caption was aimed at acknowledging the serious injury suffered by Conor Bradley in that match. He wrote: “We are a team, we are friends but most importantly we are a family,” echoing the final line of a hand-written fan letter.

Hincapié’s swipe sat awkwardly alongside a result Arsenal had every reason to celebrate on its own merits. Declan Rice played a decisive role in the winner, setting up Kai Havertz during an explosive opening spell for the visitors. Arsenal then had to absorb sustained pressure, with the hosts dominating much of the remaining 75 minutes.

Rice said the performance reflected the standards building inside the club. “For sure,” Rice agreed when this point was put to him in the postmatch mixed zone. “It’s just drilled into us. What the manager [Mikel Arteta] has built at this club and the togetherness of the lads—you don’t get that performance without the lads being all together.

“The way the manager has everything under control, the way everyone works towards everything he wants is not like anything I’ve ever seen before. So credit to us for what we have been doing for the last few years. Now it’s a massive thing to deliver again this year.”

Rice added: “We had to dig in and give it everything because they throw so many attacks at you,” Rice added. “We had to be resilient and strong. It was a great win.”

Kai Havertz’s goal against Liverpool on Sunday did more than settle the match. It also took him into Premier League history, even if the significance was easy to miss in the celebrations.

The Arsenal forward did not try to claim too much credit afterwards. Instead, he pointed to Declan Rice, whose assist made the finish straightforward. Havertz was clear in his assessment of the move, saying: “I think 90% of the goal belongs to that man,” Havertz told Sky Sports after the game. “We all know his right foot. Today he was there, brilliant overlap and perfect cross. For me it was an easy tap-in. As I said, I think that goal definitely belongs to him.”

On paper, Havertz’s record may not appear especially striking. He now has 46 goals in 172 appearances, a return that does not immediately leap off the page. Yet that is part of the long-running debate around him. Since joining Chelsea in 2020, his role has often prompted more questions than answers. He has played as a winger and across midfield, but at both London clubs he has settled in as a striker, despite neither side originally signing him for that position.

There is, however, a clear explanation for why he remains central to one of England’s strongest teams this season. Havertz has scored only four goals in 14 matches in all competitions, but three of them have come against Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool. That pattern matters.

Even last season, when injury limited him to 24 appearances and 1,066 minutes, he still managed goals against Man City and Chelsea, along with important strikes in Champions League knockout ties, including one in the final against Paris Saint-Germain.

Arsenal may yet find more goals elsewhere, perhaps from a more natural striker, but that is not certain. The fact Havertz is still starting ahead of Viktor Gyökeres says plenty. Gyökeres has the numbers, with 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting CP before 21 in his first Arsenal season, but Mikel Arteta is left weighing a different question: who delivers when it matters most.