William Saliba has been a star in the current Arsenal team and it is not a surprise that the club plans to offer him a new contract. The defender joined them in 2019, but he didn’t break into their first team until now and he spent the last few seasons on loan. In the last campaign, he emerged as the best young player in France after a season at Olympique Marseille on loan. That convinced Mikel Arteta that the defender could deliver for his team and he hasn’t slowed down since then. He is arguably the best defender in England now and clubs around the world will jump at the chance to sign him. Arsenal knows this and the Matchplug understands they have plans to offer him a new contract sooner than later. They are confident he would extend his deal because he is enjoying his time at the Emirates.

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has made an impressive start to life in England and he is making a mockery of the league being the hardest in the world. The Norwegian already has 11 goals from 7 games in the competition and he looks set to obliterate every record in the competition with time. His next opponent would be Manchester United who has been resurgent in recent weeks and he says he is ready. Erik Ten Hag’s side has beaten Liverpool and the in-form Arsenal in the league this season and they would confident about earning another win in this game. However, Haaland will not allow that and he says he is ready for the kill. He said, as quoted by Matchplug: ‘I don’t need to say too much. All I need to say is that I’m ready. Adding: ‘If I time my runs perfectly, I know that no one is stopping me.’

Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, insists his team has learnt from their poor performance against Tottenham at the backend of last season and they will do better in this game. The Gunners host Spurs is one of the top matches of the weekend across Europe and it promises to be an interesting game. The Lilywhites are only one point behind Arteta’s men which makes this one of the most important North London derbies in decades. If Arsenal wins, they will open up a four-point gap on Spurs at the top of the league table, but if they lose, Spurs will topple them and temporarily top the league table. Antonio Conte’s men’s 3-0 win in this game last season spoilt Arsenal’s chance of making the top four, but Arteta expects vengeance today. The Spaniard said via Matchplug: ‘It’s a different context. ‘We went into that game with many different circumstances, in terms of players we had available, not available, what happened during the game. ‘You take the lessons, you learn from it and you move on, that’s it.’ 

Manchester United manager, Erik Ten Hag insists he made the right choice to have chosen to become the manager of the Red Devils even though Pep Guardiola had tipped him to replace him at Manchester City. The Dutchman had a lot of success at Ajax after a spell under Guardiola at Bayern Munich. Several clubs had their eyes on him, but he chose United. The Red Devils have been in poor form recently and it seemed he has made a mistake, considering how many managers have been fired by the club’s owners in the last few months. Speaking ahead of United’s match against City tomorrow, he said, as quoted by Matchplug: ‘That’s a nice compliment. ‘But I was 100 per cent convinced to choose Man United, with everything in it. I didn’t regret it for one second. ‘I admire Pep Guardiola a lot because he is not only successful, he is doing it in a certain way that really attracts people to football – that is really a reward.’

Former Chelsea midfielder, John Mikel Obi, has announced his retirement from football after a very successful career. The Nigerian started his career as a teenager at Nigerian side Plateau United before moving to Europe, initially to join Lyn of Norway. However, he only played six league games for them before becoming the subject of a transfer battle between Manchester United and Chelsea. He eventually joined the Blues and played for them for 11 years before leaving in 2017 following the arrival of Antonio Conte as the club’s manager. The midfielder would then wind down his career at Kuwait SC, after a spell with Stoke City in the Championship. He announced his retirement yesterday stating, as quoted by Matchplug: ‘There is a saying that “all good things must come to an end”, and for my professional football career, that day is today. ‘I look back at the past 20 years of my career, and I must say that I am very satisfied with all that I was able to achieve and more importantly the human it has helped shape. ‘All of this would not have been possible without the unwavering support of my family, managers, clubs, coaches, teammates and most importantly my ever-loyal fans.’