William Saliba is not only back in training, but he's also reportedly very close to returning to the pitch.
Mikel Arteta confirmed in his pre-Slavia Prague press conference that the Frenchman played 45 minutes in a behind-closed-doors match last week and is in a 'really good place'. Whether it's before or just after the upcoming international break, Saliba will be fully reintegrated into the Gunners' squad very soon .
As great as this is for Arsenal, it creates an inevitable selection headache for Arteta. With only Bukayo Saka now out injured, the Spanish manager is going to have to start leaving senior players out of matchday squads.
On top of that, one of his two current starting centre-backs is going to play significantly fewer minutes in the coming months. It's certainly not going to be Gabriel Magalhaes, meaning Ezri Konsa is facing a much more peripheral role than he's been used to at Arsenal since signing from Aston Villa.
Understandably, the discourse has been about how Konsa and Saliba can coexist in the same squad . Many are debating whether the latter simply walks back into the team, or whether the former has done enough to warrant a starting place for the foreseeable future.
However, there is actually set to be a far bigger casualty of Saliba' return.
Arsenal play every three days. After the international break, they play the following eight fixtures in the space of 30 days:
Newcastle (A)
Borussia Dortmund (H)
Manchester City (H)
Brentford (A)
Tottenham (A)
Real Madrid (H)
Bournemouth (H)
Manchester Utd (H)
Thus, both Saliba and Konsa will be needed. Arteta will need to manage both players, as well as Gabriel, extremely carefully during this ridiculously difficult run of fixtures. There is no need to catastrophize the idea of these three central defenders co-existing in N5.
Unfortunately for Cristhian Mosquera, he is now the obvious fourth-choice centre-back in the squad. With Saliba, Konsa and Gabriel all available, it's very difficult to see where the Spaniard's minutes will come from .
He's certainly unfortunate to find himself in this position. When he's been called upon, he's been more than adept at covering for either Saliba or Gabriel since signing from Valencia last summer.
However, Konsa's arrival has very much thrown a spanner in the works for Mosquera's development and he's set to find himself on the periphery of Arteta's squad.
On a given matchday, there likely won't be room for the 22-year-old. Assuming Arteta selects the other three centre-backs and all four full-backs, it would be silly to even consider naming Mosquera on the bench.
If the three dominant centre-backs remain healthy, Mosquera might literally be limited to FA Cup minutes and an outing against Sabah in the dead rubber Champions League match in January.
He'll have gone from being an extremely valuable squad member, who even started in the Champions League final, to being the defensive equivalent of Christian Norgaard.
This article was originally published on www.paininthearsenal.com as Ezri Konsa may not be the biggest casualty of William Saliba's Arsenal return .
