Aaron Ramsdale says William Saliba still needs “digging” out despite his “Rolls-Royce” performances for Arsenal this season.
The Frenchman returned from a successful loan spell at Marseille last season where he won the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Season award.
Saliba became a France international last term and Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has now accommodated the 21-year-old in his starting line-up this campaign.
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The France international has now started all eight of the Gunners’ Premier League matches this season, including their 3-1 north London derby victory over Tottenham on Saturday, with Arsenal sitting top of the table.
Ramsdale has been impressed by Saliba’s performances but also insisted that the young centre-back needs “digging” out every now and then.
Speaking about Saliba’s adaptation, Ramsdale said: “He has fit in really well. It is a credit to him that he has been put straight into the team, he is a bit of a Rolls-Royce with the way he moves and he has never seemed phased.
“He is still a young boy so still makes mistakes so at the minute it is either Ben (White), myself, Gabriel or Thomas Partey digging him out and he is digging other people out as well.
“That is the main thing at the minute, our mistakes aren’t leading to too many things and that is the sign of a team with good characters in and around that back five.”
Arsenal have won seven of their opening eight Premier League matches this season and Ramsdale admits the pain of missing out on Champions League football to local rivals Spurs has been driving them on.
Ramsdale added: “The experiences at the end last season are adding to our team spirit and mentality.
“It’s not just the lads who have come in who have brought this winning mentality. We all have this fire burning inside because of what happened at the end of last season.
“We spoke about it before the game, to play the game and not the occasion and that’s what we did.
“The day I returned to pre-season, two weeks late through internationals, I came back and the standard of training had increased.
“From the start of the season we played really well in games and we’re winning, that helps.
“It is a never-say-die attitude, the way I would word it is an ‘Eff it mentality’. Who cares we have conceded? We have got 10 minutes, 70 minutes, we will play our way. We never run out of time….
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