It's safe to say Arsenal supporters enjoyed William Saliba's second debut with the defender featuring in a pre-season friendly against Everton.
The France international is back with the Gunners following a successful loan spell with Marseille where he scooped the 2021/22 Ligue 1 Young Player of the Season award as well as being named in Ligue 1's Team of the Season alongside the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Marquinhos and Aurelien Tchouameni.
Now there's intrigue over what Saliba can do in an Arsenal shirt next season. Supporters were given a glimpse of the defender against Everton in the early hours of Sunday morning (UK time) as he lined up in defence alongside Gabriel Magalhaes before switching to the right-hand side of a back three in the second half.
READ MORE: Arsenal player ratings vs Everton as Saliba shows class and Nketiah looks bright
In the first half, the 21-year-old coped well against the physical and aerial challenge presented by Dominic Calvert-Lewin and also demonstrated his ability to defend one-vs-one nicely as well. In addition, his second debut could have been topped off with a goal, but his shot was cleared off the line.
Then after the break, Saliba showed great pace to stop Anthony Gordon from breaking through on goal and made a few timely interceptions before being substituted around the 70th minute mark in a game that will do wonders for his fitness and most likely confidence.
Interestingly, this was the first time Saliba and Gabriel had been paired together for Arsenal following their respective £27m transfers in the summer of 2019 and 2020 so the fact they were able to keep a clean sheet has prompted many supporters to suggest Mikel Arteta has discovered his best central defensive pairing ahead of the new season.
@O_the1 said: "Saliba - Gabriel will be a formidable backline partnership", @retribution316 said: "William Saliba matches Gabriel for physicality. The duo should be the first choice centre back partnership at Arsenal" and @nvkiah said: "Saliba/Gabriel at the back that’s the partnership I’m tryna see this season."
Whether those Arsenal fans get their wish remains to be seen but Arteta has spoken highly of Saliba, although he has refused to guarantee the Frenchman regular game time next season - instead challenging the defender to earn his minutes: "I think he's improved in many areas, first of all because he has an incredible amount of minutes last year," he said ahead of the game against Everton.
"He played to a really good level. He was educated with a different coach in a different league and now it's about putting all those things for the way we want to play and in our league which is a very different context. He needs to show that now. I think he looked really confident and all that time he's been abroad has built that confidence in him which is really important. Don't forget the age he still is - how many players at his age play as a central defender at a big club in the Premier League? We cannot guarantee first-team football to anybody in this team - you can ask that question to anybody.
"What we guarantee is that the ones we really see and think are going to take us to the next level, they're going to be playing a lot of minutes. He's [Saliba] a proper talent and he's shown in the last year what can do. But in football, it's about what you do the next day - what everybody did three months ago or a month ago, it doesn't really matter. It's about what you do tomorrow and he's going to have the chance to play."
READ NEXT:
Arsenal vs Everton LIVE: Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka on target in comfortable Gunners victory
We 'signed' Oleksandr Zinchenko for Arsenal and he thrived in midfield under Mikel Arteta
Mikel Arteta discusses Marquinhos loan decision after promising Brazilian makes Arsenal transfer
Full list of every confirmed Arsenal 2022/23 summer transfer in and out after shock departure
