Rooney says there is only ONE Arsenal player that can stop Haaland

The Premier League’s top scorer will look to improve his tally of 32 goals in 28 games in Wednesday’s top-of-the-table showdown.

William Saliba is the only Arsenal player who can ‘match the pace and power’ of Erling Haaland, according to Wayne Rooney.

Unfortunately, for Mikel Arteta’s side, Saliba won’t be available for Wednesday’s trip to the Etihad Stadium for a potential title decider against Manchester City. The defender has spent the past five weeks sidelined with a back injury.

His absence could prove costly, with Haaland in sensational form. Aside from scoring 48 goals in all competitions this season, the striker has found the back of the net 15 times in his last seven games.

“How do they stop Erling Haaland?” former Manchester United attacker Rooney wrote in his The Times column.

“With William Saliba injured, there’s no prospect of matching his pace and power individually, and the only way is to go out and try to impose their own game.

“City can be vulnerable when you hit them in the transition and you saw it against Bayern Munich, particularly when Leroy Sane should have scored after Bayern won possession and broke on them.

“These are the opportunities you can get against City. Arsenal have the players to capitalize in a way that Bayern didn’t — the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, and Gabriel Jesus. Arsenal should focus on how to expose those City defenders rather than focus too much on Haaland. The mindset needs to be: nobody thought we’d be here, and now we’re playing for the title – so let’s go and take it.

“If they go with that positive approach, it’ll be a great game. If they sit back and wait? Do that against City and you die a slow death.

“City are exceptional and cannot be contained, so it’s about what they can do in attack themselves, and about having no regrets.”