Arsenal should trust Marli Salmon the same way they did Myles Lewis-Skelly

When everyone is fit, Arsenal have some of the best defenders in world football, along with some amazing depth for them.

However, injuries to Jurrien Timber and William Saliba have stunted their plans to have more players available in that position.

It is a really bad time for these players to be out for as long as they are because even though they are out, Arsenal can't really sign huge replacements because there are not that many players better than Timber or Saliba in their position.

Even if they wanted to sign players to be backups to Saliba and Timber's current backups, they would soon be surplus requirements because eventually these two players will return from injury.

This is why trusting academy players in these positions is the way to go, especially academy players who are as talented as Marli Salmon.

Salmon has impressed despite Arsenal's mixed bag of performances in the pre-season friendlies.

He's looked good and composed for a 16-year-old and has already had a few last-man tackles that fans are already drooling over.

The talent he has is obvious, and it might not be the worst idea in the world to give him a shot if Arsenal need a centre-back or right-back in the next couple of months.

Marli Salmon will not be the worst William Saliba replacement in the world by any means

Obviously, Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera will be around for that, but in the case that they are suspended or injured, Salmon is a really good talent to bring in.

He is young, he's only 16 years old, and obviously that will have an effect on Mikel Arteta's plans, but he needs to trust this player the same way he trusted Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri back in the day.

When Arsenal struggled to have a left-back fit for quite some time, Arteta trusted Lewis-Skelly to take the position and started in many of Arsenal's games in the 24-25 season.

He played incredibly well against Real Madrid in the Champions League and was not shying away from the limelight in any sense.

This is why having academy players who have been around the senior team for a while and know the club well enough to understand the pressure that comes with it can always play if need be. Age is, at the end of the day, just a number.

There's a reason why Lamine Yamal played at 15 years old for Barcelona. There's a reason why Lewis-Skelly played as a teenager for Arsenal, which just goes to show that, despite their age, the talent they have is frankly ridiculous, and you will only exploit that ceiling by playing such confident stars quite early on in the season.

Obviously, it can have a negative impact, but these players seem to be coming up with the correct mentality that a star needs to have. And Salmon is, from how it looks, just cut from the same cloth.

Obviously, it is tough to say that in the preseason, but he has given Arsenal enough to be at least given a shot to play a few matches as a substitute for the first team at some point.

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