Ezri Konsa may have just unlocked Arsenal’s attacking rebuild

When Arsenal signed Ezri Konsa in the summer, most fans saw him as a reliable stop-gap solution. But now, he’s played himself into undroppable form.

With William Saliba out for the first four months of the season, Konsa has stepped in and been imperious. In eight Premier League starts for Arsenal, the £55million defender has helped keep five clean sheets, and boasts another two in the Champions League.

In the hard-fought 1-0 win at Anfield earlier this month, Konsa won every ground duel he contested, and Mikel Arteta already sees him as one of the leaders in the dressing room.

That’s raised a question around Saliba that would have sounded utterly ridiculous a few months ago.

Could Arsenal really sell William Saliba?

To be clear, we don’t think they should. The Konsa signing essetnially allows Arsenal to not have to lean so heavily on Saliba any more, or overplay him. The same goes for Gabriel. Arteta now has three top-class centre-backs to rotate, and Konsa can fill in at right-back too.

That’s a luxury but it’s part and parcel of being one of the best teams in the world. It’s not a reason to sell. But that doesn’t mean we can completely rule it out.

Why a William Saliba sale can’t be ruled out

We all know how badly Arsenal need to rebuild their attack. The club wanted to address that in the summer and tried to sign Vinicius Jr and Julian Alvarez, but ultimately missed out. That left them with just Christos Tzolis coming in.

Despite sitting pretty at the top of the table, their attacking issues are clear. Kai Havertz has one goal in his last 11 games and Viktor Gyokeres still can’t get in the team.

To make matters worse, with Bukayo Saka out injured, the Gunners are short on top-quality out wide. Noni Madueke has stepped up, in fairness, but Tzolis and Eberechi Eze’s performances leave a lot to be desired.

If Arsenal want to bridge the gap to European champions PSG, they need superstar quality up front, and that costs serious money. It might take an unpopular sale of one of the big boys to fund it.

Real Madrid have long been linked with Saliba, who once said he didn’t want to leave Arsenal until he’d won a trophy. Well, he’s a Premier League champion now.

Arsenal hold all the cards still. Saliba is tied down until 2030, and realistically only Real Madrid, Barcelona or PSG could tempt him away. But if one of them came in, Arsenal could demand more than £100million. That might be too good to turn down, especially for a defender who has now come back from two lengthy back injuries. Can anyone guarantee he’ll be the same player? Hopefully he is.

This is all hypothetical, of course, and certainly not something for January. The summer would be the absolute earliest it could happen, but even then feels unlikely.

But the fact that we’re even lightly discussing it says everything about how brilliant Konsa has been since he arrived.