Mikel Arteta has explained why William Saliba was left out of Arsenal’s first-team squad photo, adding that they intend to take another one at some point.
Arsenal posted their first-team squad photo for 2026/27 earlier this week, but before even a minute had passed, the club had issued a clarification to explain William Saliba’s absence from it.
Arsenal wrote: “Due to a medical appointment, William Saliba was not available this afternoon.”
Even so, fans were confused. Why even take the photo if not everyone was available? Couldn’t they have waited?
Mikel Arteta explained in his subsequent press conference that the club had already rescheduled the photo multiple times, and they needed to get it taken to meet their commercial commitments. But the intention is to take it again when they have the opportunity.
“We have tried to do that picture three times already, but we have had to cancel it at the last minute for different reasons,” Arteta revealed. “We have some commercial obligations and had people who came and flew over to do that, so we decided to take that picture at least.
“We’ll have another picture with the whole family when hopefully we can get them all together at some point.
“It wasn’t in [Saliba’s] hands, but normally he’s happy about everything. He knows how loved he is. They were having some banter at the place, so he’s completely fine.”
The other noteworthy player selections from the photo were the inclusions of Max Dowman and Marli Salmon.
The two youngsters are really youth players by age, but they’re clearly considered first-team players by Arteta and his coaching team.
It would certainly be good to get another team photo at some stage, as Saliba deserves to be involved in the picture sitting alongside the Premier League trophy and the Community Shield.
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