It's easy to forget that before August 5, 2022, William Saliba had never played a competitive game for Arsenal. The Gunners centre-back has started all six Premier League games so far this season and has adapted to life in English football with ease.
Of course, Saliba has been at Arsenal for three years, but only now is he getting his first chance to impress at the Gunners. Upon arriving at the Emirates Stadium as an 18-year-old in 2019, Saliba was deemed not ready for Premier League football, and a series of loan spells in Ligue 1 followed.
He was loaned to Saint-Etienne - the club Arsenal signed him from - then Nice, followed by Marseille. His most impressive loan stint came last season at the Stade Velodrome, where he was named as the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Season, which was enough to convince Mikel Arteta that the 2022/23 campaign was the perfect opportunity to integrate Saliba into the Arsenal first-team.
