Mikel Arteta insists Bukayo Saka is still Arsenal’s first-choice penalty taker – ‘I’ll throw him the ball’

Mikel Arteta says he will “go on the pitch and throw Bukayo Saka the ball” if the winger tries to get out of taking Arsenal’s next penalty after a costly miss.

But Arteta backed the England international to continue being first-choice on penalty duties.

“Yes. If not, I will go on the pitch and throw him the ball and make sure he will take the next one,” Arteta said.

Arsenal face rock-bottom Southampton next on Friday night, but they will still be without influential defender William Saliba, while Oleksandr Zinchenko is also set to miss out.

“With William we have to wait a little bit more. He is not progressing as quickly as we had hoped,” Arteta said.

“We have to be delicate. We want to be very certain when we push him that he is ready to absorb the load. With the risk we would take at the moment that is not possible to do.

“Probably next week we will have a little bit more certainty. He is not ready yet to throw him on the pitch and compete with the intensity demanded in this league.

“We are not certain (about Zinchenko). It is a muscular injury and he needs some time to heal. We are not there yet.”

Arsenal are bidding to win their first league title in 19 years, but have stumbled recently with back-to-back draws against Liverpool and West Ham.

Arteta’s side have seven games to go, and next week’s trip to title rivals City on Wednesday looks likely to decide their fate.

“The club hasn’t fought for this position for a very long time. It is in our hands and we want to do it,” Arteta said.

“We maybe got too comfortable at some stage of the game [against West Ham]. The players know, they know in their gut, I don’t have to coach them, they knew straight away. We didn’t have to talk about it, they know they have to be much more ruthless.

“But nobody is talking about that now or what is going to happen next Wednesday. We just have to focus on what we have to do each day.”