Arsenal fans have an interesting theory regarding a potential competitive first-team debut for William Saliba.
The teenager, who arrived in north London from Saint-Etienne in the summer of 2019, is yet to feature for the Gunners so far this season as manager Mikel Arteta has taken a rather cautious approach with his development.
Reports on Wednesday claimed Saliba is unhappy with his situation at Arsenal, and the Spaniard had his say on the matter a few hours later as he explained why the defender didn't leave on loan in the summer transfer window.
"Yeah, fed up with the situation," Arteta said in his press conference ahead of Thursday's Europa League win over Molde.
"As you can see we tried to find a way in the last few days to give him some football. I explained that he needed that transition year when we decided to buy him.
"For many reasons that didn't happen and he needs to go through that.
"With the amount of central defenders that we have in the team, we had to let him out of the squad which is painful.
"After that, we had some injuries and we could have used him but it's part of this profession."
But could Saliba be brought in from the cold when the Gunners host Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday night?
Well, a couple of Arsenal fans think this could be the case after noticing that Saliba wasn't named in the U23's team which started against Blackburn Rovers on Friday night.
@ialekso asked: "This means Saliba will be in for Aston Villa?"
@TJ32250338 had a similar question: "No Saliba? Could that mean he could start against Aston Villa this weekend!!!"
It remains to be seen what Arteta does with his defensive options against Villa, but he's not even decided if Saliba will be loaned out in January.
"I don't know," Arteta added. "We certainly tried in the last few days of the transfer window to find the right club and we had him, but at the end of the day we could not make it and we will review the situation in the next few weeks and sit down with him as well and see what is the best thing to do.
"But it will depend on him and other players' situations as well."
