Arsenal loanee Nuno Tavares has had the perfect start to life in Marseille by scoring on his Ligue 1 debut for the club in victory over Reims. OM ran out 4-1 winners in their league opener, giving them a perfect start to try and close the gap on Paris Saint-Germain this season - having finished second but by some distance last time out.
The French side are no stranger to signing players from the Gunners, taking on Matteo Guendouzi and William Saliba on loan in the past season. Both impressed for the side, with the former signing a permanent deal and the latter returning to the Emirates Stadium with a bigger role in mind.
The 21-year-old defender went on to win Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year and also earned a call-up to the French senior national team squad. Marseille were so impressed that they tried to make a move for the centre-back and while it was unsuccessful, president Pablo Longoria was full of praise for the Gunners.
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He told RMC Sport: "We discussed a lot internally about what we can do [to sign Saliba], to find out what the possibilities are. We respect his club, we have to thank Arsenal. Arsenal are a friendly club that helped us a lot during the last transfer window. We have very good relations."
Those good relations continued with Tavares following the path of Saliba on loan to the club after the young left-back struggled at times in his first season in England. The signing of Oleksandr Zinchenko may have seen his game time reduced, so the loan switch to continue his development was made.
On his debut against Reims, the left-back scored an absolute stunner the put the side two-goals ahead inside the first half. Marseille went on to win 4-1, with another Arsenal loanee in Folarin Balogun scoring a header for Reims as a consolation.
Taking to social media after, former Gunners midfielder Guendouzi took to social media to post about his new team-mate Tavares with the caption in Portuguese reading: "You are so beautiful @NunoTavares." The picture he posted included the left-back celebrating, with Guendouzi's hair seen in silhouette around Tavares' head.
With two promising loanees on the scoresheet in the game, Arsenal will certainly be hoping for plenty more of that in the next 10 months as they progress in the next season.
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