Patience pays off on Saliba’s second coming
THREE debuts, two new faces, one man that the Arsenal fans longed to see above all. They had been waiting a while, in fairness. William Saliba first arrived in north London in 2019. Arsenal paid £27million for the then-teenager. Last night, after three years and three loan spells in France, a competitive bow at last.
You can forgive those who wondered whether this day would ever come. You can understand why, for some, a first sighting of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko was always going to play second fiddle. While he was away, an almost cultish zeal developed around the 21-year-old.
Arguably Saliba’s biggest task last night was not repelling Crystal Palace but somehow sating all the anticipation. Did he succeed? Could he possibly succeed?
Well, he left Selhurst Park with a clean sheet and a win after a display of composure and finesse. Early days, but it was a performance that suggests Arsenal’s investment will pay dividends at last.
Early signs this summer had persuaded Mikel Arteta that it was worth moving Ben White to right back to slot the Frenchman alongside Gabriel Magalhaes. There was little here to suggest this winning formula needs tweaking — even when Takehiro Tomiyasu is fit.
There have been false dawns before; there has been both method and madness in Saliba’s journey to Selhurst Park.
Arteta can now point to the value of sending him on loan — to play and mature. If only Arsenal’s thinking had always been so lucid. Take the few months following Saliba’s (first) arrival in 2020, when the Frenchman was exiled to the Under 23s .
Fortunately, that proved temporary. And so the rookie, who did not convince Arteta that summer, returned this year a different animal. The best young player in Ligue 1, a France international.
Saliba returned to find a different club, too. Lucky, then, that while on loan, the Frenchman watched every Arsenal game to familiarise himself with a new cast of team-mates.
Pre-season suggested that homework had paid off — Saliba looked classy alongside Gabriel, convincing Arteta he was ready.
The Premier League was always going to be a different proposition. Even if Saliba’s initial introduction was more of a watching brief — during the first 15 minutes last night, his role was largely confined to collecting Palace clearances and starting the next attack.
It took half an hour for Palace to truly test the Frenchman. Saliba needed all his pace and positioning to read a ball over the top. With Palace players waiting to pounce, he skewed a clearance into the sky. It dropped inside the area, and then on to Gabriel’s arm. As Palace demanded a penalty, Saliba nipped in to clear up the mess.
A comfortable first half then ended with a couple of scares. First, Saliba slid in to stop Wilfried Zaha as he drove towards goal. And then, after Gabriel sold himself, came a brilliant covering block on Odsonne Edouard.
There were wobbles after the break, too, such as failing to cut out a through-ball to Eberechi Eze. Fortunately, Aaron Ramsdale kept Arsenal in front.
But then came a couple of clean, chopping tackles on Zaha. And another 45 minutes to suggest Saliba is here to stay at the heart of Arsenal’s back four.
Heading into the closing stages, no one had made more clearances, or won the ball more often.
Plenty of tougher tests await. But this was a decent start, no matter how long it took to arrive.