With Kai Havert, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka all out injured, Arteta's attacking options are in a desperate state ahead of today's clash with Leicester City.
And the manager has revealed France defender Saliba has put his hand up to go up top.
Arteta said: "He said: ‘I’ll play as striker,’ Willy always says. ‘I’ll play.’ Willy is so funny. Straight away it was one of his reactions. It’s true as well that he played there. He used to score a lot of goals.
"But probably a lot of players played there when they were younger."
He also stated: "We have players that have been injured that have played 130 games in the last two seasons. So at the end it's an accident waiting to happen if you continue to load and load and load.
"It's the season, it's the accumulation of that, it's the stress of that, it's the luck, it's the preparation, it's the methodology. There are a lot of factors and very difficult to point out as something but obviously the schedule that is planned is super demanding and for certain players, especially the explosive players, it becomes a real issue."