William Saliba has had an incredibly impressive pre-season for Arsenal ahead of the 2022/2023 Premier League campaign. The Frenchman’s solid performances have put him in strong contention to start in the season opener against Crystal Palace on August 5.
The 21-year-old has started in Arsenal’s last two matches ahead of the Premier League season, highlighting that he has impressed Mikel Arteta and looks set for the game time in the new campaign. Despite still being young for a defender, his composure when defending and in possession of the ball is reminiscent of a veteran player.
Saliba’s excellent displays have been epitomised by the fact that the Gunners have not conceded in pre-season while he has been on the pitch. With the youngster in defence, Arsenal looks much more solid.
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The Frenchman joined the Gunners on their tour to the US, where he started two out of the three matches before starting his Emirates Stadium debut against Sevilla in the Emirates Cup. Arsenal has kept a clean sheet with Saliba in the backline in all of these matches.
Doubts had lingered over his Arsenal future ahead of this season, but he has appeared in a handful of pre-season friendlies with Mikel Arteta, indicating that he is part of his plans. "He needs to come back," Arteta said in May. "He has the experience and environment necessary to be competitive for us."
The centre-back joined the Gunners from St. Etienne in 2019 for a fee in the region of £27million but was loaned straight back to the French club. Two consecutive loan moves back to Ligue 1 at Nice and Marseille would then follow as he was unable to break into the Arsenal team.
However, it seems that the loan moves away from the club helped Saliba mature as a player. The improvement in his game has potentially given him a breakthrough into the Arsenal team.
Arteta has kept the same starting team for the last two pre-season matches, which suggests that he has found his strongest team ahead of the Premier League campaign. With Saliba featuring in this team, there is every chance that the Frenchman is set to make his Premier League debut against Crystal Palace next week.
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