Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has revealed that his plan of using Ben White as a right-back was a long time coming.

Many fans and pundits were surprised when Arsenal lined up at the start of the season with the central defender in a full-back position.

Instead, William Saliba has been partnering Gabriel in the heart of defense.

“I already had that idea last year but I didn't think that we had somebody in that position to replace [White] in what I wanted him to do," Arteta told Sky Sports.

“The moment that Saliba came in, in pre-season I looked at the amount of development that he had in the last year at Marseille.

“I just said 'We need to adapt this', and straight away after that I had in my head that we had to do Oleksandr [Zinchenko] in that way I could fit in exactly what I wanted for this team."