Arsenal star William Saliba shows true colours in moment with Chelsea's Christopher Nkunku

Arsenal defender William Saliba has been in action for France during the international break and he has impressed supporters with a piece of defending in training

William Saliba wowed the Arsenal fans with an exceptional piece of defending while on international duty with France. The 23-year-old played 90 minutes for Didier Deschamps' side during their 4-1 win over Israel on Thursday and is expected to retain his place in the starting XI for the trip to Belgium tonight.

In preparation for the game at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, France posted a clip on social media which showed the players competing against each other in a training game. That video - which has fetched over 125,000 views - displayed Saliba producing a dramatic last-gasp piece of defending.

A neat pass down the line found Chelsea's Christopher Nkunku in acres of space and he needed to just stroke the ball into an empty net, but Saliba managed to find the pace to cover the distance and make a late interception to deny the forward. Wesley Fofana was among those to greet Saliba after his superb tackle.

Although the piece of defending - in the grand scheme - doesn't mean much because it wasn't in a game, it does show Saliba's true work ethic and determination that he is willing to put the graft in during training as well as on a matchday. He doesn't want to be beaten even if it's not a competitive match.

Saliba has been a revelation for the Gunners since returning from his loan spell at Marseille ahead of the 2022/23 season. He made 33 appearances in his first full campaign with the Arsenal senior squad before missing the last eight weeks with a back problem - an injury that proved to be pivotal in their Premier League title bid.

The former Saint-Etienne centre-back recovered from that issue and played in all but two matches for Arsenal in all competitions last season. Saliba was named in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year for the second straight year as a reward following another excellent campaign.

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Arsenal and Saliba have started this season in fine fettle, but the France international is attracting interest from Real Madrid due to his form over the last couple of years. Real are understood to have identified Saliba as a key target ahead of next summer's transfer window - but the Gunners are confident of keeping hold of him.

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