You don’t need to tell any Gooner about the impact that William Saliba has made on our first-team, but when you delve into the numbers, you’ll see why his new contract is such a huge boost for us going forward.
Since he first pulled on our colours for a Premier League clash against Crystal Palace in August 2022, Wilo has been a rock in our defence, and in fact, no player in the division has made such an impression on their backline in that time.
That’s because since his first appearance just over three years ago, he’s kept the most clean sheets among outfield players in England’s top-flight:
Player | Club | Clean Sheets |
|---|---|---|
William Saliba | Arsenal | 43 |
Gabriel | Arsenal | 42 |
Virgil van Dijk | Liverpool | 36 |
Dan Burn | Newcastle | 36 |
James Tarkowski | Everton | 34 |
Fabian Schar | Newcastle | 33 |
And William also boasts the best minutes per goals conceded among outfielders with at least 3,000 minutes played:
Player | Club | Mins | Conceded | Mins/concession |
|---|---|---|---|---|
William Saliba | Arsenal | 9,197 | 82 | 112 |
Rodri | Man City | 6,201 | 56 | 111 |
Kevin De Bruyne | Man City | 5,356 | 50 | 107 |
Gabriel Jesus | Arsenal | 4,159 | 39 | 107 |
Martin Odegaard | Arsenal | 8,743 | 83 | 105 |
Ruben Dias | Man City | 7,278 | 70 | 104 |
Julian Alvarez | Man City | 4,110 | 40 | 103 |
Gabriel | Arsenal | 9,360 | 94 | 100 |
The Frenchman’s impression on our side also sees him top the charts across a longer period of time, too. No player in our entire history has reached 50 wins for the club quicker than he managed in just 66 games, and he now has 87 to his name as he eyes a century at some point this season.
Also, of all players to have played 100+ Premier League games for us, William has the highest win rate, more than many of the famed members of our Invincibles squad:
Player | Games | Wins | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|
William Saliba | 105 | 71 | 67.6% |
Lauren | 159 | 105 | 66.0% |
Ashley Cole | 156 | 100 | 64.1% |
Marc Overmars | 100 | 64 | 64.0% |
Gabriel | 166 | 106 | 63.9% |
Martin Odegaard | 157 | 100 | 63.7% |
Ben White | 125 | 79 | 63.2% |
Sol Campbell | 146 | 92 | 63.0% |
Mikel Arteta | 110 | 69 | 62.7% |
Nacho Monreal | 187 | 117 | 62.6% |
Another target for Wilo will be 150 matches, which he is just 10 shy of now and could achieve in November.
Only his defensive partner Gabriel, as well as Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard have featured more times for us since the 24-year-old debuted at Selhurst Park at the start of the 2022/23 campaign. Since then he’s played 85% of our Premier League minutes, and 69% in cup competitions, including European matches.
That incredible consistency and availability came to the fore in 2023/24, when Wilo played every second of all our 38 league games, becoming our first outfield player to complete the feat during the Premier League era, with Lee Dixon the last to do so in the First Division back in 1989/90.
