Why Saliba to Marseille could be the signing of the summer so far
Cameron Smith
- 10 Oct 2021 11:10 BST
- 4 min read
When Arsenal signed William Saliba back in 2019, it was believed they were adding one of the Europe's best young centre-backs to their ranks.
He had shown his worth at St Etienne, and Arsenal had even beaten arch-rivals Tottenham to his signature; the early signs were promising.
Saliba was immediately loaned back to St Etienne for the following season, but a metatarsal fracture suffered in November ensured he missed 15 games through injury; that meant he played just 14 times all season.
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Upon returning to Arsenal, Saliba was joined in the Premier League by former St Etienne teammate, and fellow young centre-back, Wesley Fofana. However, the pair experienced very different fortunes during the 2020/21 season.
While Fofana was on his way to winning Leicester's Young Player of the Year award, and receiving praise upon praise for his performances for the Foxes, Saliba wasn't even included in Arsenal's Premier League squad.
Mikel Arteta later went on to say that he "regret[ted] the decision", but the Spaniard simply decided to put Saliba, signed for £27 million, in the U23 side.
The Frenchman went six months without first-team football before he joined Nice on loan in January. That loan went well, yet it wasn't enough to encourage Arteta to play him for Arsenal.
Instead, £50m was spent on Ben White, while Saliba was loaned back out to France, this time to Marseille.
How well has Saliba played at Marseille?
The young defender is now an experienced head in Ligue 1, and is fully aware of his surroundings. At Marseille, he has already expressed a fair amount of leadership, and that can be seen by him recently captaining the French U21 team.
Playing on the right of a back three for Marseille, it's been Saliba's ability to play forwards that has impressed the most.
According to Fbref, he is completing 93.7% of his passes this season, which is a rate that no Arsenal player [with over 45 minutes played] can match.
He's also incredibly good at progressing the ball. His 5.62 progressive carries ranks in the 93rd percentile for Europe's top five leagues, and would be good enough for fifth in the Arsenal squad, behind Bukayo Saka, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Emile Smith-Rowe, and Nicolas Pepe. The Gunners' best centre-half in this regard is Pablo Mari with just 2.0.
Saliba also completes over double the amount of progressive passes as White, his replacement at Arsenal.
Of course, Saliba is still an Arsenal player, and is only on loan at Marseille, but it's interesting to see how much better he's playing than Arteta's current options.
On the defensive side of things, Saliba has been dribbled past just twice, which equates to 0.29 times per 90. By comparison, Mari is at 2.0 per 90, and White is at 0.60, while Gabriel Magalhaes is yet to be dribbled past in four games.
Marseille are currently fifth, but their squad is stacked, and Saliba has added an extra element of class they didn't have before.
With Arsenal faltering at the start of this season, it does beg the question as to whether letting him leave on loan again was a smart choice.
As for if Saliba is the best signing of the summer, that's up for debate, but he's certainly a contender. He's displaying the form that prompted Arsenal to splash the cash on him week-in, week-out, and he's now become a reliable presence at the back.
