William Saliba's Arsenal career is finally underway and early signs indicate he has been well worth the wait.
A £27m signing from French side Saint-Etienne in the summer of 2019, the defender was sent out on loan three times by the Gunners - twice under Mikel Arteta - to aid his development and decided to stay and fight for his place ahead of the new season amid talk of joining Marseille permanently.
And with each passing game, it's looking like the aforementioned decisions have been a stroke of genius from all parties involved as Saliba has been very impressive in each of his first three senior appearances for Arsenal against Crystal Palace, Leicester City and more recently Bournemouth.
READ MORE: Every word Mikel Arteta said on Saliba's goal, Jesus' display, Pepe's future and transfers
Named man-of-the-match in the opening game of the season, the Frenchman was hailed for his reaction after putting through his own net against the Foxes in the next game and on Saturday evening at the Vitality Stadium opened his account for the north London outfit.
Stroking the ball into the top corner with his supposed weaker foot following a perfect lay-off from Granit Xhaka, Saliba's goal left many in attendance stunned - especially teammates Oleksandr Zinchenko who didn't bother joining in the celebrations out of sheer disbelief and Gabriel Jesus.
Taking to social media after the game, the 21-year-old spoke of his delight at scoring his first Arsenal goal but made sure to point out that the victory and a clean sheet were equally as important: "Happy of my first goal with @arsenal," he wrote on Instagram. "Another win and clean sheet. Thanks for the amazing support again! #COYG."
Saliba thanking the Gunners fans for their 'amazing support' could be his verdict on the song - a remake of the tune 'Tequila' with his name switched in instead - that was sung in the away end for what felt like the entire first half, after his goal and at the full-time whistle.
Such was the popularity of the song that Arteta revealed the rest of the squad continued signing it in the dressing room after the game: "The boys were singing it in the dressing room," the Arsenal manager said before delivering his own verdict. "It’s a good song to be fair."
Speaking of the song, Zinchenko believes it could be sung a lot more times by Gunners supporters between now and the end of the season as he heaped praise on Saliba and the impact the youngster has already made in the squad since returning from his latest loan spell.
"He’s incredible," the Ukraine international told the club's official website. "It looks like this guy has got a lot of experience in his bag, but he’s still so young. Fingers crossed, we’ve got an unbelievable centre-back. He’s such a nice guy and he deserves this. A massive thanks to our fans as well, they did unbelievably well during all the games and they helped us a lot and of course, William deserves that song. If we’re going to get a clean sheet every single game, they’re going to sing every time!”
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