Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal new-boy William Saliba is progressing well - despite the fact he's not played for the Gunners this season.
Arsenal signed the 19-year-old centre-back last summer from Saint-Etienne but immediately loaned him back to the Ligue 1 side for the duration of the 2019-20 season.
It was expected that Saliba would be immediately integrated into the first-team following his arrival at the Emirates in the summer.
However, much to the surprise of many, the France Under-20 international has yet to make a single appearance for his new side this season.
Despite his slow and seemingly stuttering start to life as an Arsenal player, Arteta insists the teenager is progressing well.
"He's in a much better place, " the Spaniard said of Saliba.
"He's feeling a lot more confident around the place, his language is improving and he's starting to understand much better what we're doing physically.
"He's played a few games with the under-23s which he needed because he didn't play any football in the last seven or eight months. Things are progressively getting better and better."
Saliba won't be making his Arsenal debut this evening in the Gunners' Europa League clash with Irish champions Dundalk, whom they'll lock horns with at the Emirates.
The defender has been left out of the north Londoners' 25-man Europa League squad, a decision Arteta is currently ruing due to the defensive crisis he's now facing due to a mixture of injury and unavailability.
"I feel really bad for William Saliba," Arteta said. "Because we had so many central defenders, we decided to leave him out of the squad which 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 when he's fit and available to play.
"But when you make those decisions, you can't always think about every possible outcome."
Arsenal enter their clash with Filippo Giovagnoli's Dundalk as the overwhelming favourites to pick up all three points from their Group B match.
Arteta, however, is refusing to underestimate the European minnows, saying: "We've got some Irish staff here.
"I've heard some really positive things about Dundalk. What I've seen is a really determined coach, how united they are, they are really well organised and they fight really hard."
