Granit Xhaka has been left impressed with William Saliba and has backed the Arsenal youngster to shine in his debut season.
With Takehiro Tomiyasu still out injured and Ben White forced to feature at right back, Saliba was handed another start against Leicester City. An unfortunate sequence in the second half saw the Frenchman score an own-goal but Arsenal ultimately won at Emirates in a 4-2 scoreline.
Besides the own goal, the 21-year-old barely put in a wrong shift and that was summed up by the reaction from Arsenal fans, which even surprised head coach Mikel Arteta.
“William Saliba has impressed Granit Xhaka after his blistering start to his Arsenal career. Though the own goal against Leicester brought in some criticism, the new Arsenal deputy captain is unfazed and believes that the Gunners have a new star in their ranks.”
“This is football,” Xhaka said when asked about Saliba’s own goal, as per the Evening Standard.
“People only see the own goal but maybe, hopefully, they’ll see what a game he had. This guy is 21. I think in his first game in the Premier League for Arsenal, he was unbelievable.”
“You can see how… he looks like he is 30. He has discipline and big character. He is not so loud but he is a proper leader in my eyes. You can see he is amazing. He has a lot of quality and yeah, we forget the own goal because for 90 minutes he had a great, great game” said Xhaka.
