William Saliba's first appearance after announcing his intention to finally kick-start his Arsenal career from next season was an eventful one, to say the very least.
The highly-rated defender - who 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 as a reward for a successful loan spell with Marseille - had been linked with a permanent move to the French club this summer.
But when speaking over the weekend, Saliba confirmed that he's heading back to his parent club: "I belong to Arsenal. I still have two years left," Saliba said in an interview with French television programme Telefoot. "I will be back with Arsenal. I have played zero matches, and I still want to show them my true face and have the chance to play for these fans and this great club."
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So with Saliba finally in line to make senior appearances in an Arsenal shirt next season - three years after joining the club from Saint-Etienne in a £27m deal - naturally supporters are keen to see him in action at any chance they get before the 2022/23 campaign gets underway in August.
For a lucky few, that opportunity arrived over 24 hours after the announcement as the 21-year-old was included in a much-changed France team - without regulars such as Karim Benzema, Kylian Mbappe and captain Hugo Lloris - for their UEFA Nations League clash against Croatia on Monday night.
The current World Champions took the lead early in the second half through Adrien Rabiot, but Andrej Kramaric's penalty seven minutes from time meant the game finished all square to ensure both nations got up and running in Group 1 after losing to Denmark and Austria, respectively, in their openers.
With regards to Saliba, the one standout moment of his night occurred in the 12th minute when he made a fine last-ditch tackle to deny Ante Budimir the chance to get a strike at goal.
However, that tackle wasn't enough to bump up his rating from French publication L'Equipe who gave him a '4' - with an explanation as per Le Phoceen as follows: 'William Saliba is one of the lowest rated players. The daily retains two losses of ball and an implication on the action bringing the Croatian penalty.'
L'Equipe are notoriously harsh with their player ratings and it seems they marked Saliba down for his slip at a costly moment as a few seconds later Jonathan Clauss brought down Kramaric for the penalty. For context, across France's two games against Denmark and Croatia, the Arsenal defender received the same rating as Mbappe, Jules Kounde and Theo Hernandez.
