There’s a real feel good factor around Arsenal right now with Mikel Arteta’s men sitting atop of the Premier league after securing three wins from their opening three league matches. It’s a stark contrast to this stage of last season when they were bottom of the table — without a point or a goal.
There’s a fresh feel to the club this year though, helped by the signing of players like Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko. However, the star of the campaign so far has arguably been colossal defender William Saliba who struck his first Premier League goal for the club in Saturday's impressive 3-0 win away to Bournemouth.
It took three years — and three loan spells — before his Arsenal debut arrived in this season’s opener at Crystal Palace, but he’s already established himself as one of the first names on Mikel Arteta’s teamsheet thanks to his dominant defensive displays so far.
He was one of the key subjects of discussion in the Sky Sports studio on Saturday night following the Gunners’ 3-0 victory over Bournemouth, with pundit Jamie Redknapp labelling him a defensive "thoroughbred".
“If you look at it, when you’ve got Fofana looking like he’s going to Chelsea they’ve offered £80m and they were a defensive partnership - I think at St Etienne where they both did really well,” said the former Tottenham midfielder.
“The two of them are just such thoroughbreds they read the game so well, classy on the ball. Going away has helped him grow as a player and the Premier League is so unforgiving but he’s learned, strong and such a mature player.”
It’s high praise to compare the Arsenal man to a defender who could be set to join Chelsea in a £80million deal, however Redknapp’s comments are warranted. So far across his three appearances, Saliba has won 73.3 per cent of his defensive duels and 62.5 per cent of his aerial duels.
For comparison, Fofana averaged a 70 per cent success rate in defensive duels and 67.5 per cent in aeriel duels last season. The two former teammates also averaged pass success rates of over 90 per cent too.
Arsenal paid just £27m to secure Salbia’s services back in 2019, and now based on his age and the current market, it’s probably fair to say they could get close to three times that figure of they opted to sell him now.
The initial upfront fee to acquire his services now looks like a shrewd investment and another transfer success for a club who are steadily building a healthy list of them.
