‘We can achieve everything!’ – William Saliba signs new four-year Arsenal contract, will wear No 2

Arsenal have confirmed that French central defender William Saliba has signed a new long-term contract at the club reported to be until 2027.

Saliba, 22, joined Arsenal from Saint-Etienne until 2019, spending time on loan with France first with his former club, then Nice and finally Marseille.

At the start of the 2022-23 season he earned the starting spot and quickly cemented himself as one of the most important players in Mikel Arteta’s squad.

The club have now confirmed that his future will be with the club long-term whilst also revealing that he will switch shirt number to No 2 next season.

“Honestly the decision was easy,” Saliba told the club’s media outlets, “because I had a really good season last season, but unfortunately I didn’t finish it because of injury. So I want more. I want to play more years for this amazing club. I didn’t achieve anything yet, so I want to win everything with this club.

“It’s good sometimes to learn like this, [on his delayed route to the first team] I didn’t play when I [first] came, so I learned a lot. I became a new man. It’s important for the mentality and then I came back stronger last summer and I knew I would have a chance if I play well.

“I had the confidence of the coach and all the players so it was easy for me. But yeah, it’s a good experience because had it been easy, maybe I would not be happy as I am today. The first two years was hard and now I’m happy because I worked hard and I didn’t give up.

“I’m so, so, so hungry because I didn’t play for four months and I didn’t help my team. So I hope I won’t have an injury this season, I want to be here all this season with the team. I’m so, so hungry to play on. I can’t wait to be on the pitch.

“I think we can achieve everything, of course, it’s easy to say this, but we have the coach, we have the character, we have the players and every year the team gets stronger. We have better players with a good mentality. We have a good experience from the last season as well. We know that the season is so long. So we are confident and we know we can do something good at this club.”

As a sign of Saliba’s importance to the team striker Gabriel Jesus recently went on The Denilson Show and highlighted just how crucial the young Frenchman is.

“When he plays, we concede few goals, when he doesn’t play, the number (goals conceded) increases,” he said.

“When I got injured, Eddie replaced me very well. Then we signed Leo (Trossard). We kept the pace.

“But when Saliba got injured, it was complicated. The other defenders are good, but we were playing in a certain way. Look at the stats we concede a lot less with him.”