The one stunning stat that shows why Arsenal’s William Saliba is the real deal

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Arsenal paid £27 million for William Saliba last summer before loaning him back to Saint Etienne for the entirety of this season. (Goal)

The young Frenchman is viewed as the future of Arsenal’s defence. His performances last season were fantastic and the Gunners forking out such a big fee on a teenager shows how much they believe in his position.

Saliba, this season, struggled with an injury. The young man started just 11 games in the Ligue 1 this campaign but he was brilliant in almost every one of those games.

Squawka looked closely at his statistics for Saint Etienne this term and one stat stood out.

Saliba’s true tackle success rate is a staggering 79.17%. To put that into perspective, only two other players in Europe’s top five league have a better number than him – Everton’s Yerry Mina (82.22%) and AS Roma’s Federico Fazio. (80%)

What makes that stat even more impressive is that Saliba is the only outfield player to have played at least 900 minutes in Europe’s top five leagues without committing a foul from an attempted tackle. (Squawka)

Arsenal have had their fair share of defensive problems this season. The Gunners have conceded 36 goals in the Premier League so far, only Tottenham and Chelsea have conceded more among the top nine.

Saliba’s stunning true tackle success rate puts everyone at Arsenal shame. The Gunners’ best in that category, surprisingly, is Nicolas Pepe at 69.77%.

Calum Chambers is the only Arsenal defender with over 65% success rate with Sokratis and David Luiz’s stat dropping down to an unimpressive 58.14% and 57.14% respectively

This certainly does not mean that Saliba will come in and outshine everyone next season. The Premier League is a completely different ball game compared to the Ligue 1 which means that he will need time to settle in.

However, the numbers prove that Arsenal have a brilliant young defender in their ranks and with a little guidance, he can grow into one of the best in the league in a few years time.

Saliba sure looks like the real deal and Arsenal fans will be hoping that he solves their woeful defence next season.