Matteo Guendouzi and William Saliba played for France in their friendly game against Nicolas Pepe’s Ivory Coast last night and they impressed their national team manager.
Both of them entered the match in the second half when the game was finely poised at 1-1 after Pepe had his opener cancelled out by former Arsenal man Olivier Giroud.
Guendouzi has been with the national team before, but Saliba was earning his first minutes for Le Blues and he did his best to ensure their opponents didn’t score while he was on the pitch in an eventual 2-1 win.
The result isn’t an unexpected one, but the Arsenal men gave a good account of themselves, which left their manager, Didier Deschamps, impressed.
Commenting on the performance of both Arsenal loanees, he said via Le10 Sport:
“They are two players who are young but who have a lot of maturity. Matteo, with what he does with OM, he already has a lot of determination and desire, that doesn’t bother him. William is incredibly calm, to use a local expression. It’s something that boosts rather than hearing whistles. It’s good, I try to give them playing time to see them in relation to what awaits us for the future and each time they make sure to take advantage of these playing times.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Saliba proved again why he is such a top player and needs to be at Arsenal from next season.
His debut means he has played for the French national team before kicking a ball for the Gunners and that should give Arteta more reasons to hand him an opportunity when he returns from his loan spell at Marseille.