Ian Wright has hailed Arsenal’s decision to keep William Saliba away on loan last season after the 21-year-old impressed on his Premier League debut.
The French international made his long-awaited senior bow for the club he first joined back in 2019 away at Crystal Palace on Friday night, earning praise from the likes of Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher.
Kept out on loan in the three years after joining Arsenal from Saint-Etienne, Saliba won Ligue 1’s Young Player of the Year Award last season while at Marseille and even broke into a fiercely competitive French international set-up.
A dominant figure at Selhurst Park, the decision to keep Saliba away from the first-team had proven a talking point amongst sections of the Arsenal support, particularly last season when a lack of squad depth arguably cost Mikel Arteta a place in the top four.
Still, club legend Wright hailed the patience Arsenal have shown with Saliba, believing it has helped him acclimatise to top-level football.
“Mikel and Edu have got to take a lot of credit for what they’ve done with this guy. This guy is someone we’ve always thought would be special,” said Wright.
“Even when they sent him out on loan there were fans calling for him to come back. He’s a full international now, he looks composed, calm, he’s got great pace.
“It’s a decision that was magnificent from Arsenal. It would have been easy to bring him back last year but they gave him the extra season and now he looks like he’s been playing in that position for years.
“At 21, to go to Crystal Palace for the first game of the season and play like that… you don’t want to get carried away but that’s some performance.”
