Ally McCoist raves about £27m Arsenal player after Nottm Forest win

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Ally McCoist and Andy Townsend have been raving about Arsenal defender William Saliba.

The pair were speaking on TalkSPORT (14/8 8:45am) after the first weekend of Premier League action.

Mikel Arteta would have been pleased with Arsenal’s start to their league campaign.

Off the back of winning the Community Shield over Manchester City, they recorded a 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest at the Emirates.

In reality, they should have won the match much more comfortably.

Nottingham Forest were pinned in their own half for much of the game but made it difficult for Arsenal to turn their domination into clear-cut chances.

They then produced a devastating counter-attack after an Arsenal corner that made the final 15 minutes very nervy.

One Arsenal player who stood out to Ally McCoist on Saturday was William Saliba.

The £27m defender wasn’t joined by his normal partner Gabriel Magalhaes at the back on Saturday.

Instead, Ben White was playing through the middle and he also had a fine game, although he’ll be annoyed he couldn’t prevent Taiwo Awoniyi from spoiling their clean sheet.

McCoist very impressed with Arsenal star Saliba

McCoist and Townsend were naming their five-a-side teams of the best players from the first weekend of Premier League action.

The Scottish pundit named Bernd Leno in goal and said: “I’ve gone for [William] Saliba at centre-back.”

Andy Townsend replied: “There are lots of texts coming in saying about how well he played. He makes the game look ridiculously easy.”

McCoist finally added that Saliba was, “Terrific, absolutely terrific.”

Much has been made of the effect Saliba’s absence had on the end of Arsenal’s campaign last season.

Arsenal’s drop-off in performance did coincide with his season-ending injury.

However, it would be very harsh to blame Saliba’s replacement Rob Holding for their title challenge falling apart.

As McCoist said, Saliba has been terrific for Arsenal ever since he was introduced to the team last season.

Statistically, he was exceptional on Saturday and he’s been impressive in training over the summer.

It will be interesting to see how he copes when faced with playing in the Champions League for the first time this season.