Arteta reveals Arsenal star who has answered every question

Stuart Telford

• 4 Mar 2023 10:29 GMT
• 3 min read

Premier League leaders Arsenal spent more than £100 million on new players last summer but it was a player already on the Gunners' books who has most impressed Mikel Arteta.

Compared to some of their rivals, a circa £100m outlay was relative peanuts, and Arsenal have looked particularly shrewd in acquiring Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City for a combined £77m.

But one of the biggest departures from last season's team that finished fifth and this year's which is five points clear of City - Jesus and Zinchenko aside - is the fact that William Saliba has become a mainstay at centre-back.

READ: Arsenal trying to bolt down Saka and Saliba after Martinelli extension

Now a full France international, Saliba had spent the last three seasons out on loan with Saint-Etienne, Nice and Marseille, and he wanted to stay at the latter last summer. Arteta and Arsenal had other ideas, though.

Saliba had 'huge potential'

"He had an immediate impact, and to be fair the first two sessions I remember that we looked at him, we went 'there is huge potential here,'" Arteta explained ahead of the Gunners' meeting with Bournemouth on Saturday.

"And the way he settled and the way he started to get his role around the team, around his teammates, and the way he played in pre-season, he took every question mark that we could have with him out, you know, and he has given us all the reasons to play him and I think he's been exceptional since that day."

READ: Saliba vs Gabriel row: do Arsenal pair like each other?

Saliba's 68 passes per match are among the highest of centre-backs league-wide while he also averaged a successful take-on per 90, showing his ability to beat the press from the edge of his own box.

Saliba is now valued at €25.6 million by FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm, down from the €30m the club paid Saint-Etienne for his services in 2019 in oart due to the fact his contract is up in June.

There is a club option to extend that by another year, however, and there is little chance of Saliba going anywhere anytime soon.