David Luiz’s knee problem will not impact Arsenal’s decision on giving the Brazilian a new contract this summer.

David Luiz is out of contract in the summer and there has been talk that Arsenal want to give him a new one-year deal that would see him given reduced playing time but a bigger role behind the scenes.

With the player’s season all-but over following knee surgery, some might have wondered if that would put an end to any new deal coming his way.

Not so, it seems.

“We said that at the end of the season we will make a decision on those types of contracts,” Mikel Arteta answered when asked about the club’s plans to extend his contract for a further 12 months.

This all fits with what Arteta said at the start of March.

David Luiz contract extension seems inevitable

In mid-February, reports suggested Arsenal were planning to offer David Luiz a contract extension to remain with the club next season. However, these claims were quickly shot down by other reports that the two parties were not in negotiations just yet.

Then, in a March press conference, Mikel Arteta seemingly confirmed that they weren’t holding talks with Luiz just yet, by telling the media they only plan to make a decision at the end of the campaign.

Arteta was asked about Luiz’s contract situation and whether the defender is a positive influence in the dressing room.

“He is. Extremely positive,” Arteta said. “The professional he is, how he looks after himself, but also how he looks after his teammates. He’s always willing to help, he’s always really positive around it.

“He’s got huge experience of how to win things, but as well how to manage difficult moments and you need that.

“He’s a presence, he’s a leader and someone that is playing really well at the moment. What I want is that he keeps playing like that until the end of the season and we’ll make that decision together.”

Luiz has 29 appearances this season, despite increased levels of competition through the permanent arrivals of Pablo Mari and Gabriel Magalhaes, as well as the resurgence of Rob Holding.

The 33-year-old was clearly deemed a better option than Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos, who were pushed out on permanent deals in January.

Luiz is far from faultless, but by March he was the only outfield player in Europe’s top-five leagues to play over 1,000 minutes without being dribbled past.

https://twitter.com/SofaScoreINT/status/1367754297245634561

It’s not too hard to imagine Arteta deciding to keep him for another year if this one ends well.