Mikel Arteta is impressed by 25-year-old Arsenal star, he views him as ‘crucial’

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Arsenal have handed out a number of contracts to key players in the last few months, and Ben White could be the next player to extend their stay.

There is no hurry for the club to extend White’s deal, given that it has three years left to run, but it has now been reported that Mikel Arteta wants to reward him with a pay rise after being left heavily impressed by the 25-year-old.

The England international has been excellent at both centre-back and right-back since joining from Brighton in 2021, and his fine form is now set to be rewarded.

Arteta impressed with Ben White

The Daily Mail have now reported that White is in talks over a new deal, and have revealed that the Arsenal manager is impressed by White’s versatility and consistently strong performances in two positions.

“The 25-year-old’s versatility is viewed as crucial to Arteta, who feels White’s performances are consistently good regardless of which position he plays in and believes he deserves to be rewarded,” the report stated.

It is clear that White is viewed as “crucial” to Arteta, and he now looks set to increase his £120k-per-week salary, following Martin Odegaard, Aaron Ramsdale, William Saliba and Bukayo Saka, who signed new contracts in recent months.

White’s best position

White was phenomenal last season after being moved to right-back to accommodate for Saliba in the middle, and his performances were so consistently strong that Takehiro Tomiyasu struggled for minutes.

This came after an excellent debut season as a centre-back, and he initially returned to the position at the start of this campaign, with Thomas Partey as an inverted right-back.

It sums up White’s consistency that there is no clear best position for him, as he has delivered in both roles, but his link-up play with Saka on the right-hand side perhaps makes him more useful for the team overall when he is at full-back.