William Saliba’s challenging start to life with Nice continued despite the on-loan Arsenal man claiming he would “boss” Ligue 1.
Saliba, 19, joined the French club until the end of the season on Monday, after a lack of minutes at the Emirates.
He was immediately named in the starting XI to face Brest but endured a debut to forget, picking up a yellow card in a 2-0 defeat.
But the former St-Etienne man came out swinging ahead of the clash with Metz, saying: “I have played in Ligue 1, even though I am young, I am here to be the boss.”
(Image: Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Things did not go to plan as Nice made the trip to the north-east of the country, however, as Saliba lost his man in the build-up to the hosts’ equaliser.
A corner was whipped in and a scramble in the area followed, with the ball ultimately falling to John Boye to poke in to make it 1-1 in the 79th minute.
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The draw with Metz comes after Saliba said he had joined Nice “to run the defence” and said “I hope that we will be better defensively in the matches to come.”
Discussing his challenging first half-year with Arsenal, he added: “My first six months were difficult, because I was coming from six months where I wasn’t able to train because I was at home (pandemic), and couldn’t train outside, couldn’t play.
“I arrived there as they were finishing the league season, so I was training alone. As soon as they came back from holidays, we quickly had the first friendly matches where I lacked rhythm and was a bit insufficient physically.
“The coach immediately told me that I was not ready. I would have at least liked to have a chance to rediscover my rhythm. But this is football, it’s like that.”
Will William Saliba cut it as a first-team player for Arsenal in the future? Have your say in the comments.
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