Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has claimed that William Saliba never had any intention of leaving the club permanently this summer.
The 21-year-old has finally broken into the Gunners' first team squad three years after arriving from Saint-Etienne and was awarded the man of the match trophy in last week's 2-0 win over Crystal Palace.
Saliba had previously been sent out on loan to Saint-Etienne, Nice and Marseille, helping the latter qualify for the Champions League with a second-placed finish in Ligue 1 last term.
Marseille made their desire to re-sign Saliba on a permanent deal publicly known, but Arsenal rebuffed Les Olympiens' attempts and integrated Saliba into the team during pre-season.
The France international is contracted to Arsenal for another two years, and speaking ahead of Saturday's Premier League clash with Leicester City, Arteta claimed that a summer departure was never on the cards.
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"The reality is that he was very convinced and determined to come here. He had no other choice, he never suggested anything else," Arteta told reporters.
"From the first conversations I had with him, you could see that he only had one intention – to come here and start to play football matches for Arsenal.
"I always said that especially with the young and development portfolio of players that we have in our squad, you have to pay a bill, and that bill is that at some stage they're going to make mistakes, they're going to experience things for the first time and they have to go through that process.
"Mistakes are part of football at 21 and 35. They're going to happen, the mistakes that we want to happen are as much as possible on the training field and if they happen on the pitch they don't cause you goals. That's the objective. But inevitably, things will happen.
"I think expectations and positive expectations are created when you see something special in a player and it's obvious: they (the Arsenal fans) have seen that, they see the talent.
"What I would say is, instead of doing that, just protect the player. Let's protect him, let's make sure he has the right environment to fulfil his potential and when things don't go that well that we are as good as we are when things are going well."
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During his Arsenal debut, Saliba made seven clearances, won three of his four ground duels and posted a 93.8% pass accuracy from the heart of the backline alongside Gabriel Magalhaes.
Arteta was unsurprisingly questioned on the topic of a possible contract renewal for Saliba, but the Gunners boss remained tight-lipped on internal discussions with the centre-back's entourage.
Saliba will expect to hold his place in the backline for Saturday's clash with Leicester, which will mark his first Premier League appearance for the club at the Emirates Stadium as he builds towards the 2022 World Cup.
However, Takehiro Tomiyasu is back in the fold to challenge for the right-back spot, which Ben White occupied during the win over Crystal Palace, and Kieran Tierney will battle Oleksandr Zinchenko on the opposite side.
Emile Smith Rowe is also expected to return to the squad after battling back from a groin injury, but Fabio Vieira is reportedly set to miss out again with a foot problem, despite returning to training earlier this week.
Ben Knapton
