'A great surprise!' – How Arsenal's Nuno Tavares has lit up Ligue 1 for Marseille like William Saliba before him

Marseille and Arsenal loanees, there’s just something about them. In fact not even loanees, Matteo Guendouzi liked it so much he made the move permanent and Alexis Sanchez, once a darling of the Emirates, also has made it his home following his release from Inter Milan.

But it is this year’s loanee, Nuno Tavares, who has picked up where William Saliba left off last season, by taking to Ligue 1 like the proverbial duck to water. Ad Tavares has already scored three times this campaign, more than his entire previous professional career in total, with Marseille sitting joint-top of Ligue 1 alongside champions PSG on 16 points.

Premier LeagueMan Utd officially enter battle royal for top four, plus the war on VAR – The Warm-Up13 HOURS AGO In order to try and find out a little more about Tavares' form we got in touch with Eurosport France friends Maxime Dupuis and Julien Pereira. One of the best signings We start with Dupuis who believes that Tavares' pace makes him an ideal fit for manager Igor Tudor’s 3-4-2-1 system.

In this set up Tudor wants either second strikers, attacking midfielders or inverted wingers playing behind the lead striker. The width comes almost entirely from the wing-backs, which is handy when you have wing-backs who are as good at going forward as Tavares and his partner on the opposite flank Jonathan Clauss.