Mikel Arteta said William Saliba played through the pain barrier to star for Arsenal in Sunday's convincing win over Brentford.
French defender Saliba scored the opening goal at the Gtech Community Stadium, before further strikes from Gabriel Jesus and Fabio Vieira secured a dominant 3-0 win that sent the Gunners back to the top of the Premier League table.
Saliba's strike, a looping header from a Bukayo Saka corner that dropped in off a post, was his second goal for the Gunners, and further underscored his impressive start to life in English football after he found his feet during two loan spells.
"He's been superb," Arteta told Sky Sports after the match.
"He hasn't trained for 10 days. He had some discomfort, he's been hanging, he only had one training session and he comes in and competes the way he's done it.
"As well, the ugly part of the game that people won't recognise too much. It's true, he deserves some credit."
Saliba's dedication to playing for Arsenal comes in stark contrast to comments he made in the summer, when it was indicated that he would prefer to stay at Marseille following a successful loan spell.
After helping Marseille to a second place finish in Ligue 1, qualifying for the Champions League, Saliba said: "I want to come back and play the Champions League. I have never played in it and I want to discover it here."
At the time the comments were seen as somewhat disrespectful to Saliba's parent club, who are playing in the Europa League this season, but any indication that the Frenchman wasn't focused on Arsenal have gone out of the window after a fine start to the campaign.
Speaking before the Brentford game, Saliba told Canal+ all about Arteta's role in keeping him at the club.
"We spoke a bit at the beginning of the season," he said.
"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.”
