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.
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The decision to let Saliba get regular game-time in France before returning to Arsenal has proved to be a masterstroke, with the Gunners defender key to their impressive start to the campaign. He has slotted seamlessly into the Arsenal backline, and has heaped praise on Arteta for his role in helping him adapt.
“We spoke a bit at the beginning of the season," Saliba told Canal Plus. "He was happy with what I did whilst on loan. He’s a very good coach, who really knows what he’s doing. He is clear in everything that he says.
"He has helped me integrate quickly into this system of play. Every day he gives advice to be better on the pitch. I came back here [to Arsenal] to impose myself and it’s nice to start well, as I have.
“We have had a very good start to the season until the match at Manchester [United]. We [were] first and we want to continue like that. As everyone knows, I didn’t play. For me, it was better to go away.
"I’m a young player and it’s always better to play and gain experience, make errors and learn. If you don’t play, you can’t progress. For me, going away for a year-and-a-half was good. I came back stronger, with new ambitions.”
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