Mikel Arteta has made six changes to his Arsenal side to face Slavia Praha in Czechia on Wednesday night and made a big call for William Saliba who travelled with the squad following his return from injury

Mikel Arteta has unsurprisingly named multiple players in his starting eleven who did not start the clash at Anfield on Sunday. Despite the UEFA Champions League being a key priority for the club, the Spaniard has understandably opted for caution, with another Premier League match less than three days away.

He has made six changes, bringing in Ben White, Piero Hincapie, Mikel Merino, Martin Zubimendi, Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres. There had been hope he would offer the floor to a potential record-breaker in Max Dowman, but sadly it will not be two-fold.

Had he been selected in the Arsenal team from the start, it would have confirmed that he would have become the youngest ever Arsenal player to start a UEFA Champions League match.

It would have ended the 22-year-old accolade held by Cesc Fabregas is finally claimed, and few would have been surprised that Dowman would have been the starlet to do it. The record he can still break would needed him to come off the bench and should he score he will become the youngest-ever goalscorer in the competition, taking over from former Borussia Dortmund forward Youssoufa Moukoko.

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Arteta has also given the chance to Viktor Gyokeres to start the game and build on his goal from last week in the defeat to Fleetwood Town. Despite both the Swede and Kai Havertz’s poor performances in the League Cup, Arteta stuck by the German, who vindicated his call by scoring the winner against Liverpool.

Pressure is somewhat building around Gyokeres, and only scoring goals is going to get him out of it. The same can be said for Eberechi Eze who also needs to again find form after a slow start to the campaign and with Christos Tzolis now back from injury that battle has only toughened for the England international.

William Saliba’s return from injury was a great surprise for the fan base on Tuesday and seeing the Frenchman make the flight with the group even better. Not yet fit enough for the starting line-up, however just seeing the player on the bench is a big benefit.

Arsenal will move to ten points with a victory here in Prague. They have four remaining matches to play, three of them taking place at the Emirates Stadium against Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid and Sabah, with a trip to Real Betis coming in the new year.