They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The two which William Saliba chose to bookend his latest social media post told the complete story of his north London derby.
To celebrate Arsenal’s thumping 4–1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday evening, Saliba selected five images of himself from the match. It was telling that the first and last depicted the burly Frenchman wrestling Spurs striker Richarlison to the turf.
That running battle defined an imperious display from Saliba. It was a performance made up of a series of scuffles, all pinches and pokes, shirt pulls and sly jabs in the ribs. Richarlison would emerge from the derby with a spectacular goal, spearing a not-so-consolatory consolation over David Raya from 40 yards while Spurs trailed by three goals, yet it was Saliba who emerged victorious.
Rough and tumble is not Saliba’s normal game—that is the realm of Gabriel. Arsenal’s towering Brazilian is the handsy bouncer while his centre back partner sweeps up the stragglers at the cloakroom. Yet, as the injured Gabriel watched on from the dugout with Piero Hincapié making his first appearance in a north London derby, Saliba assumed the mantle of Arsenal’s aggressor in chief.
Despite his wonder goal, Richarlison and the rest of Tottenham’s frontline were muzzled for most of a desperately one-sided derby. Arsenal limited Spurs to just three shots, none inside the penalty area, and an xG of 0.07, the lowest recorded by any team across all 119 Premier League games this season. Declan Rice captured the mood with a comment beneath Saliba’s post: “Locked up.”
No wonder Mikel Arteta “enjoyed every minute of it.”
