Saliba on netting the Emirates Cup opener

When Declan Rice’s corner kick curled into the danger area in the ninth minute of Sunday’s Emirates Cup tie with Lyon, it was William Saliba on the receiving end.

After heading in the opening goal, Wilo’s centre-back partner Gabriel then stepped up to nod home another Rice corner later in the first half.

“Sometimes it’s like this, we have to win the games on set-pieces and we did so well today,” he said after the match.

“After last season, we have to be so good on set-pieces and we started well today and have to keep going like this because we can win a lot of games on set-pieces.

“I’m happy because I think we played well. It wasn’t easy because it was so hot today and they were not bad, we played against a good team. We did our job, of course we could have scored more goals. It’s good for us to be prepared for next week against Wolves.”

Saliba is well placed to comment on the impression that defender Riccardo Calafiori has made on the team since his arrival earlier in the summer.

“Yeah, I’m so happy for him,” he said. “I think it’s only the beginning, he’s a really good player, young as well. We’re so happy to have him with us and I hope he’ll have a really good season with us.”

It wasn’t just the goals and Riccardo’s debut that Gooners had to celebrate on Sunday. It was also the way in which Mikel Arteta’s team were hunting in packs to win the ball back quickly whenever we lost it.

“The coach as well really likes when we do that, he encourages us to do that a lot when we don’t have the ball, we have to be ready, we have to be alive, to regain the ball quickly,” Wilo explained. “That’s it, the next level is to regain the ball and score the goal straightaway.”

Now, Wilo is looking forward to the Premier League kicking off against Wolves at 3pm on Saturday.

“Of course, I’m really looking forward to starting a new season and hopefully it’ll be a really good season for us and we’ll give everything as always,” he said.