Arsenal players urged to ‘step up’ in absence of William Saliba and address red card problem | OneFootball

Gunners will be without Saliba against Liverpool after their latest costly dismissal

Thomas Partey admits someone in the Arsenal squad must “step up” and fill the void left by William Saliba for their Premier League showdown with Liverpool.

Saliba played every single minute for Arsenal in the Premier League last season and has established himself as one of the best centre-backs in Europe.

And Partey says it is up to the rest of the squad to show they can cope without the Frenchman when they face Liverpool.

“He’s a massive player who we are going to miss and somebody has to step up,” said Partey.

Suspended: Saliba was sent off as Arsenal lost 2-0 at Bournemouth

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

“We have good defenders and the coach knows what he is going to do to help the team and also, any player who is there has to step in and try to give their best.

“We have to first concentrate on our Champions League game [against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday], try to win, and then move to the next game.

“But at the moment we have to learn from the mistakes, we have to try and stay with 11 men on the pitch.

“We are good when we have 11 on the pitch, we are also good with 10 men, but we cannot stay every game with 10 men so we have to continue working hard and try to stay 11 men on the pitch.”

Arsenal slumped to their first defeat of the season at Bournemouth after having a man sent off for the third time this season.

The Gunners have dropped seven points in those games, while winning all five of their league matches that they finished with 11 men, and Partey believes they must learn from that.

“We have a very good squad and we know every time we stay with 11 men on the pitch we are going to dominate the game and we are always thinking of winning,” he said.

“We want to win every game but sometimes as I said, things do happen on the pitch that you cannot control.

“We have to win out any contest, Saturday we could not do it. So we have to forget about Saturday and concentrate on our next game.

“We try to win our duels and sometimes these things happen. Sometimes we cannot control it, we have to just stick together, continue working and red cards do happen in games.

“So at the end of the day, it's part of football. We have to learn from every mistake we do and then try to not let it happen.”