WILLIAM SALIBA is out for revenge against Manchester United – who remain the only team to beat table-topping Arsenal in the Premier League this season.
Marcus Rashford hit a double as Erik ten Hag’s Red Devils won 3-1 against Saliba’s Gunners at Old Trafford in early September.
Mikel Arteta’s side responded brilliantly by winning ten and drawing two of their next 12 Prem games, with the latest victory coming at rivals Tottenham on Sunday.
But Ten Hag’s men have also gone from strength to strength in recent months, winning their last nine on the trot in all competitions.
French star Saliba said: “We know we have a big game next week.
“We know they beat us. They are the only team to beat us this season in the Premier League and we want to beat them again at home.
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“We will prepare this game very good I think, and I hope we will win in front of our fans.”
Sunday’s clash at the Emirates is all set up to be one of the most exciting matches between the two juggernauts since the Noughties.
Those were the days when Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal and Sir Alex Ferguson’s United were slugging it out for the title.
Arsenal’s victory at Spurs put them eight points clear at the top of the table – indeed they have dropped just SEVEN all season.
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But Ten Hag’s in-form side could be within six of Arteta’s side if they beat Crystal Palace on Wednesday and could even cut that gap down to three with a victory next weekend.
Arsenal are in the driving seat, however, but Arteta says they will have to remain “almost perfect” if they are to win the title and is targeting at least 90 points to achieve it.
Centre-back Saliba has been a huge part of their success so far, having returned from a hat-trick of loans back to France at the end of last season.
The 21-year-old admitted he could never have expected the Gunners to be so clear at the top at the stage.
Yet he did get the feeling there was something happening here during pre-season.
The defender, who scooped the Ligue 1 young player of the year award last term while farmed out to Marseille, said: “When I came here of course we wanted to be in the lead.
“But I didn’t imagine we are where we are in January.
“But after the summer, when I saw the team and the mentality, I told myself: ‘Yeah, we can do something this season’.”
Arsenal have a young side with the likes of Bukayo Saka, 21, Martin Odegaard, 24, and Gabriel Martinelli, 21, all key players.
They did bring in two players who had won the Premier League title four times in the last five years in Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus, who is currently injured.
But apart from that pair it is a relatively inexperienced squad that Arteta has flying high.
Some teams may feel the heat of leading the division – as Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle famously did when blowing a 12-point lead in 1996.
Yet Saliba said: “It’s better to have this pressure when you are at the top than when you are down at the bottom. It’s better to keep going like this and we don’t have to have pressure.
“(The eight-point lead) is never enough. We know we have a lot of games to go.
After the summer, when I saw the team and the mentality, I told myself: ‘Yeah, we can do something this season’
William Saliba
“We have to be focused because things can change quickly.
“If we lose one game, after we can have no confidence, so we have to be focused on keeping going and trying to win. We focus on ourselves.”
Arsenal are currently trying to tie Saliba down to a new contract.
His present terms expire at the end of next season, after the Gunners activated a one-year option on his deal last term.
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Asked if games like Sunday’s North London derby victory could help persuade him to extend his stay, Saliba replied: “Yeah, of course!
“The club is speaking with my agent and me, the only thing I can do is [focus on my football]. I am so happy here.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
