It quickly became clear just how vital defender William Saliba is to Arsenal, but an astonishing stat has now been revealed which makes his impact even more impressive.

Saliba joined the Arsenal squad at the start of last season after a few years out on loan, and made a transformative impact, helping Mikel Arteta’s side become a title-challenging team after failing to finish in the top four prior to his arrival.

The France international picked up a season-ending injury in March, after which Arsenal’s title challenge collapsed, and many have pointed to his withdrawal against Sporting Club De Portugal due to a back injury as the turning point in the title race.

Saliba’s importance to Arsenal

Journalist Sam Dean has now revealed an astonishing statistic: William Saliba has the points per game of any player in Arsenal’s Premier League history, with just three losses and five draws in 34 games.

Since his debut, Arsenal have won 77% of their Premier League games with him in the side, and this takes a heavy drop to 46% when he is absent.

This arguably makes him Arsenal’s most important player, and it is clear to see why Arsenal crumbled without him in the side at the end of last season.

The 22-year-old’s impact is such that Arsenal look like a team that can win the title with him in the side, but when he is not marshalling the defence, the level of the rest of the team drops.

Saliba’s bad luck

Whilst his points per game record of 2.44, highlights how his importance, one aspect of Arsenal’s win percentage dropping is that Takehiro Tomiyasu was also injured alongside Saliba.

Both players had their campaigns ended in one half of football against Sporting, and this meant that Rob Holding was the replacement for Saliba, who was described as “exceptional” by Mikel Arteta shortly before his injury.

With Tomiyasu also out, Ben White was unable to move to the centre, and Holding was far off the level required. His inability to replace Saliba’s excellence in a high line meant that Arsenal invited more pressure, and threw away 2-0 leads against Liverpool and West Ham in the title race.

It is clear that Arsenal cannot lose Saliba again, particularly given the thin squad depth at the back, and there may be extra caution over him from now on.

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