Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Arsenal are working hard to tie down William Saliba, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli to new, long-term deals.

The three young players have been at the heart of Arsenal’s fine start of the season, which continued with victory in the north London derby on Saturday.

Saka and Saliba, both 21, have less than two years left on their current contracts. The club have an option to extend Martinelli’s existing deal to 2025.

Mikel Arteta confirmed the Gunners are working on new deals for the trio behind the scenes

Talks have begun over tying them down for longer, with Saka a target for Manchester City and Chelsea monitoring Brazil forward Martinelli.

Ahead of Thursday’s Europa League game with Norway’s Bodo/Glimt, Arteta confirmed technical director Edu was leading those efforts behind the scenes.

‘Obviously we have to plan for the future and we are all working on it,’ he said.

‘Obviously Edu is on top of it and all the board. We will try to do things in the right way, being fair and trying to plan the best possible way and reward the players that, in our opinion, have a big future for the club. 

‘When we have something to announce, we will do that.’