We’ll come back stronger – William Saliba confident Arsenal can turn form around

William Saliba has vowed Arsenal will come back stronger after they suffered a third consecutive defeat on Sunday.

The Gunners created a number of chances, especially in the first half but exited the FA Cup in the third round following a 2-0 loss at home to Liverpool.

It saw Mikel Arteta’s team conclude a difficult festive period on another low after a run of four defeats in their last seven matches.

“We know we’re not in our best moment, but we won’t give up and we’ll come back even stronger.”

Saliba urges our players and supporters to stick together following today’s result

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) January 7, 2024

Arsenal will get the chance to reset with no fixture until January 20 and they are set to spend this week away in Dubai at a warm-weather training camp.

“We have to stick together,” Saliba said.

“We know we’re not in our best moment, but we won’t give up and we’ll come back even stronger.

“We will work a lot during this break, we will breathe a little bit. We will stick together and come back stronger and better.”

Arsenal were top of the Premier League on Christmas Day, but have only scored once in their last three fixtures in all competitions.

Like in their 2-0 loss to West Ham, their final home clash of 2023, the Gunners were wasteful in front of goal against Liverpool and made to pay when Jakub Kiwior headed an own goal past Aaron Ramsdale in the 80th minute.

Luis Diaz confirmed Liverpool’s place in round four with a fine finish after a slick counter-attack, but it could have been a different story had Reiss Nelson, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz taken excellent first-half chances.

Arteta played down talk of a January move for a forward and insisted the fans must stick with his young side.

Saliba told the official club website: “I’m really disappointed because we started the game so well.

“We had too many chances too score, but we didn’t. Even in the second half, we were good. Unfortunately we conceded one free kick 10 minutes before the end.

“We have to kill the game off before because when we have so many chances like this, we have to score.

“We have to defend free kicks better, we cannot concede like this, so we can be really disappointed.”

Arsenal were without forward Gabriel Jesus for the visit of Liverpool due to another knee injury, but Arteta played down concerns.

“He had some pain in his knee. We have done a scan that shows something,” Arteta insisted.

“Hopefully it’s not something big. It’s the same knee that he had before, so we could not take any risks.”