Jamie O’Hara has issued an apology to William Saliba after admitting that the Arsenal defender had proved him wrong with his recent performances.
Saliba was signed for Arsenal from Saint-Etienne way back in the summer of 2019 for £27million. Many pundits and supporters were confused by the Gunners’ approach, which saw the young centre-back spend the next three seasons on loan in France, most recently with Marseille.
The 21-year-old finally made his first-team debut for Arsenal earlier this month and it already seems like he was worth the wait. Saliba shone in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on the opening day of the Premier League season and kept his place in the heart of Mikel Arteta’s defence for the 4-2 victory against Leicester last weekend.
The Leicester win saw Gabriel Jesus star with two goals and two assists and the team performance prompted begrudging praise from former Tottenham midfielder O’Hara. “Arsenal are looking like Barcelona,” he stated on talkSPORT over the weekend.
O’Hara has now apologised specifically to Saliba, who he says he underrated initially. “I wasn’t sure of him because he’d gone out on loan, I hadn’t seen him play loads. I was thinking maybe he wasn’t up to scratch to play for this team,” he said. “And I’ll apologise, I absolutely got that wrong. He is the real deal, what a signing.
“What a player he is and I know that he’s young but he could be sensational. He’s still got things to work on, like his positioning, but he looks really, really good. But Arsenal will concede goals, in the full-back areas you can get at them. I like Oleksandr Zinchenko but he’s not great one vs one so I think that will be an issue for them position wise.”
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Jesus was outstanding against Leicester and O’Hara believes Arsenal’s £45m deal with Manchester City will prove to be the signing of the summer.
“He’s part of everything they do, his build-up play is good. You can stick it into him and he can hold it up, he’ll lay balls off, he works hard and defends for the team,” he said. “He’s just got that something special in and around the box. He’s got those quick feet, he’s got that quick mind where you can see an opportunity.
“To pull something like that out of the bag [his first goal], with no back spin, those are world-class attributes you’re showing at Arsenal. He is the signing of the summer, absolutely. And it pains me to say that being a Spurs fan but he is absolutely brilliant. I love watching him play.”
Arsenal will look to continue their perfect start to the Premier League season when they travel to the south coast to take on Bournemouth on Saturday.
