Mikel Arteta says he regrets leaving William Saliba out of Arsenal's Europa League squad.
The 19-year-old has yet to play a first team game for Arsenal after spending last season on loan at St Etienne, the club he was also close to joining on loan on transfer deadline day.
Arsenal have eight centre backs in their first team squad but recent injuries have seen that number reduce, with David Luiz out for several weeks and both Pablo Mari and Rob Holding on the sidelines.
Saliba and Greek defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos were the other defenders who Arteta opted not register for the club's Europa League campaign.
“I feel really bad about William Saliba because we decided that because we have so many we decided to leave him out of the squad,” said Arteta.
“It was really hurtful for me to do. I was hoping that Pablo Mari would be back in two weeks but he had a setback and then we don’t have Pablo and we don’t have William who is fit and available to play.
“When you make those decisions you can’t always think of every possible outcome.”
Having played for Arsenal Under-23s and trained regularly with the first team, Arteta believes Saliba is showing signs of improvement on the training ground.
The French centre back is technically eligible to play in the Premier League as he is under the age of 21.
“He is in a much better place, he’s feeling more confident around the place,” he said.
“His language is improving, he’s starting to understand much better what we’re doing to do physically.
“He’s played a few games with the under-23s as well, which he needed because he hadn’t played any football in the last seven or eight months.
“I think things are progressively getting better and better.”
