David Luiz could be paving the way for William Saliba as Arsenal's defensive rock for when the Frenchman returns to the club at the end of the season.
Saliba is in his second season as an Arsenal player, though he is yet to make a first-team appearance for the Gunners after enduring a difficult start to life in north London.
The defender, who will turn 20 later this month, spent the first season back with Saint-Etienne on loan as a part of the initial transfer.
Saliba then returned to France in January after a frustrating first half of the 2020/21 season in which he did not secure a loan in the summer and was left out of Arsenal's Premier League and Europa League squads.
Now at Nice, Saliba is proving his quality, having won the team's Player of the Month award for January.
He has started all but one Ligue 1 game since his transfer, playing the full 90 minutes in all 11 starts, and he also started both Coupe de France games.
And earlier this month, football stats company SofaScore released information about Saliba and the man he could replace in Arsenal's starting XI next year, Luiz.
As of March 5, no player in the top five European leagues has played more minutes without being dribbled past than Luiz at 1,076 minutes.
In second place is Saliba, who has played 990 league minutes without being dribbled past.
Of course, there is much more to defending than just not being dribbled past. And this statistic should come with rather large caveats - certainly, very few will be arguing than Luiz is the best defender in the top five European leagues.
Nevertheless, it certainly displays the defensive qualities that Saliba possesses, and provides hope for his return to Arsenal in the summer.
It remains to be seen what type of role he will have when he re-acclimatises with the Arsenal squad.
Mikel Arteta made it quite clear that he did not think Saliba was ready for first-team Premier League football, given he was left out of the squad and rarely given a chance to prove himself in competitive action.
However, Arsenal signed Saliba to be their long-term defensive rock. It would seem somewhat illogical to not at least try him out and see how he fares, especially given the underwhelming performances of many other players in his position.
