Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta plays down spat between Gabriel and William Saliba

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has played down rumours of a rift between William Saliba and Gabriel after the defenders were involved in a heated argument during the win at Leicester City on Saturday.

The Gunners' narrow 1-0 victory at the King Power Stadium, courtesy of Gabriel Martinelli's second-half strike, meant Arsenal maintained their two-point advantage over Manchester City at the weekend – that will increase to five points if they win their game in hand against Everton on Wednesday.

But their appeared to be flashpoint when Saliba and Gabriel seemed to be engaged in an angry exchange at the end of the game that reportedly resulted in the Frenchman shoving his Brazilian teammate away.

And while Arteta did not go into any detail about what the spat was over, he did insist there were no problems between the pair. “I don’t want robots,” said the Spanish coach ahead of their game at the Emirates Stadium.

“I want players with feeling, with passion that makes demands of each other but at the end they have that chemistry.

“Those two certainly have that chemistry on and off the field and I love that, even when winning, they want to do better.

“They are a happy marriage! They love playing with each other, but they are really demanding with each other – which is good. Everything is fine.”

Arteta believes that their squad depth will be crucial in the coming busy weeks ahead as they look to hold on to their advantage over City and also kick-off their Europa League knockout campaign against Sporting Lisbon in the last 16.

“The fact we have options right now, that we have players coming back from injury is going to be crucial because players cannot maintain the same level for 10 months, it is just impossible,” Arteta added. “We