William Saliba is shining for Arsenal and has now received praise from a rival Premier League boss in Leicester City’s Brendan Rodgers.
The Gunners have made a great start to the season and beat Leicester 4-2 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Gabriel Jesus had Arsenal 2-0 up before Saliba inadvertently scored an own goal, heading past Aaron Ramsdale.
Granit Xhaka restored Arsenal’s two-goal lead and whilst James Maddison pulled one back for Leicester, Gabriel Martinelli made it 4-2.
The scoring ended there, with Arsenal taking six points from their opening two Premier League games.
William Saliba is shining for Arsenal
The own goal may have cast something of a shadow on Saliba’s day, but you can’t ignore his impact on this Arsenal side.
Saliba joined Arsenal from Saint-Etienne back in 2019 but it has been a long, long road to first-team action.
Arsenal immediately sent Saliba back to Saint-Etienne before he barely kicked a ball in the first half of the 2020-21 season.
Saliba was loaned to Nice for six months and then to Marseille for the whole of the 2021-22 campaign.
Some wondered whether Mikel Arteta really fancied Saliba but those doubts have been well and truly erased this season.
Saliba has started both Premier League games this term and is making himself almost undroppable in the heart of the Arsenal defence.
The Frenchman looks to have a huge future ahead of him at Arsenal and he is now earning praise from all corners.
Leicester boss Rodgers even praised Saliba, telling Sky Sports that he thinks the defender will fare ‘very, very well’ for Arsenal in the coming years.
Rodgers noted that he hasn’t seen Saliba since he was about 18, no doubt when Leicester were also watching Saliba’s Saint-Etienne teammate Wesley Fofana.
“I think the young guy, [William] Saliba has come in and he’ll do very, very well. I haven’t seen him since he was 17-18,” said Rodgers.
Arsenal will be hoping that Rodgers is right about Saliba, and all the early signs are certainly heading in that direction.
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