Arsenal defender William Saliba says he’s willing ‘to fight and work with the team’

Arsenal defender William Saliba has sent a defiant message after returning to the club from his loan spell – claiming that he’s ready ‘to fight and work with the team’ ahead of the new season.

The current Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year was signed from Saint-Etienne in 2019 but was shipped back to France after struggling to break into Mikel Arteta’s first-team plan.

Having returned to the Gunners ahead of the 2022-23 season, the Frenchman has insisted it’s ‘good to be back and start pre-season’ after starring in their 2-0 win over Everton in Baltimore.

Speaking before Saturday’s win, Saliba said: ‘We talked a bit on Monday and we are going to talk more.

‘My plan is to fight and work with the team, win as much as possible and grow more. It feels good to be back and start pre-season, to continue training and participating in friendly matches.

‘It’s important to be here with the fans, as well as with my teammates. I hope we will enjoy good training and good matches, this which is important before the start of the season.’

The Frenchman also spoke on how he kept up with Arsenal’s results while abroad: ‘When I was on loan I watched every [Arsenal] game because when I was there some players weren’t there.

‘I watched the games to see how they were playing, so when I came back it would be easier to play with those I hadn’t met before.’

The Frenchman left Everton forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the ground in Baltimore

Saliba spent last year on loan with Marseille – where he won Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year

Arsenal boss Arteta, who handed Saliba his debut in August 2020, spoke on the 21-year-old’s development whilst on loan – both physically and mentally.

‘All that time he’s been abroad has built that confidence in him which is really important,’ Arteta said. ‘I think he’s improved in many areas, first of all because he has an incredible amount of minutes last year.

‘He played to a really good level. He was educated with a different coach in a different league and now it’s about putting all those things (into) the way we want to play and in our league which is a very different context. He needs to show that now.’

Saliba spent the second-half of the 2020-21 season on loan at Nice before being sent to Marseille last year – where he won the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year award. 

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta claimed that he is excited to see Saliba in a Gunners shirt

The Gunners coasted to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Everton in their pre-season friendly at the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore – where Saliba featured for 71 minutes. 

Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring for the Gunners in the 33rd minute of the game and went on to provide an assist for Bukayo Saka – who scored Arsenal’s second just three minutes later. 

Their next pre-season test sees them face Orlando City on Thursday as they continue their tour of America.