Arsenal have hit a patch of rich form and their defensive unit has been one of the most impressive aspects of their 2021-22 season so far.
Ben White and Gabriel Magalhaes have proven an impressive duo at the centre of Mikel Arteta's back line, but many remain concerned over the future of William Saliba.
The Frenchman was signed from Saint-Etienne in 2019 for £27million but he is yet to make an appearance for the Arsenal first-team.
Many fans wanted him promoted to the matchday squad this season, but Arteta had other ideas, sending him out for a third spell on loan in Ligue 1, this time with Marseille.
"He will come back for pre-season and he will be with us," Arteta said on the player's future back in September.
"Hopefully he will come back after playing a number of games and his performance raising and his development progressing in the right way. That’s why we made that decision.
"I know that sometimes it’s difficult to explain or understand after the money that the club has spent trying to bring him in, to send him on loan.
"But a lot of things have happened to him he’s a long-term player for us and we need to protect him as well. And giving him three or four games is not enough."
This season has seen Saliba go from strength-to-strength in Ligue 1, becoming a mainstay in Jorge Sampaoli's side and keeping 16 clean sheets already this season.
Now the 20-year-old has had his say on the move to Arsenal and the subsequent loan spells away.
While he admits in the interview with Eurosport that he found it tough not playing at the Emirates, Saliba also insisted that he has made no decisions on his future.
"There are hard times. I hadn't played a game for six months," Saliba said of his decision to leave on loan in the summer.
"You have to fight in a career. We must take that as a lesson to go further. It gave me a little slap to say: 'You are nobody!' You can be bought for 30 million euros, arrive in a club and we put you aside.
"I took this experience by being positive. I feed on it. I know what it's like not to play for six months. Today, I want to play every game. It puts the ideas back in place. Before arriving at Arsenal, I said to myself: 'Who am I going to play with?' And then you are not even in the group in the Premier League.
"It is not a direct message. But since I didn't play for six months, that I had a hard time, I wanted to show that I had the capacity to play at this club. I do it for myself first. It's not revenge.
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"I'm on loan. But I pretend I'm there for many years. I'm not thinking about returning to Arsenal [right now]. I give myself to Marseille. I don't think about what will happen afterwards."
Saliba's contract is set to expire at the end of the current campaign and the Gunners will be starting to worry that they could lose the youngster for nothing in the summer.
