Arsenal's William Saliba showed his quality with brilliant moment vs Wilfried Zaha

William Saliba finally made his competitive debut for Arsenal against Crystal Palace on Friday night.

Even writing out that sentence seems mind-boggling when you consider that the young Frenchman was signed to great fanfare no less than three years ago, only to swiftly be gobbled up by the club’s loan system.

However, having spent the past three seasons at Saint-Étienne, Nice and Marseille respectively, the time has finally come for Mikel Arteta to invest his faith in one of Europe’s most exciting young centre-backs.

And Saliba showed on more than one occasion at Selhurst Park why he was named the Ligue 1 YoungPplayer of the Year last season, building on his pre-season promise with a sensational performance.

The 21-year-old was drawing wide-spread praise from Gooners across social media as he lined up in a back four comprised of himself, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ben White and Gabriel Magalhães.

Arsenal looked superb in the opening exchanges against the Eagles with Gabriel Martinelli missing a glorious early chance, before making up for his misfire by breaking the deadlock with a close-range header.

From there on out, there were a few more defensive frailties present in the Arsenal set-up with Aaron Ramsdale called upon to make a couple of key saves, but Saliba remained resolute throughout.

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And there was even time for him to produce a marquee moment where Arsenal fans could really rub their hands together at the prospect of seeing him more often.

It came in the form of a fabulous slide-tackle on Wilfried Zaha, which is a daunting prospect at the best of times given the Palace star’s electric footwork, but even more so when it comes in the penalty