Nuno Tavares has sent a warning to Mohamed Salah ahead of Arsenal’s clash with Liverpool on Saturday.
Tavares joined the Gunners from Benfica in the summer to provide cover for first choice left-back Kieran Tierney.
But, the 21-year-old has shone in the absence of Tierney during Arsenal’s last three Premier League games against Aston Villa, Leicester City, while also being preferred to the Scotland international against Watford.
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Should Tavares start the game at Anfield, he will likely be in direct competition with Salah – the league’s top scorer with 10 goals in his opening 11 games.
But the Arsenal star is far from phased by the challenge, believing that the Egyptian forward may not even know who he is.
‘Salah, if I play, will play against me. I don’t have a problem with anyone. I play for Arsenal. We have a good team and Liverpool have a good team as well to fight on the pitch,’ he told TalkSPORT.
When asked whether Salah will have a problem with him, Tavares said: ‘I don’t think so. Salah won’t know who I am.’
Tavares believes that the north London side shouldn’t be overlooked as a serious contender to win the league title this campaign.
‘This game is big for us. We go to Anfield to try to win the game. That’s it. Why top three and not top one? I told you we are Arsenal, so we want to win the league. For us it is top one,’ he added.
‘In the beginning we didn’t do well [three Premier League defeats in a row], at the beginning of the season. But now we are good and people need to understand we are Arsenal. We need to win games to achieve our objective.
‘I don’t know why people are so shocked about Arsenal. We are a big club and have good players. I don’t know why people are surprised about that. For us it is normal and simple to win games.
‘We are in top five, for us we want to achieve top one. I don’t know why people are surprised with that.’
