Arsenal player with just five appearances could be the biggest winner from Mikel Arteta’s new contract

Mikel Arteta is set to sign a new contract at Arsenal.

The Spaniard is reportedly about to pen a new long-term deal to keep him at the Emirates until 2030. Unquestionably, this is great news for Arsenal as they retain the manager who led them to their first league title in over 20 years.

This is good news for pretty much every player at Arsenal, but there’s one player in particular who may be over the moon to hear that Arteta is staying for the foreseeable future.

We’re talking about Marli Salmon.

Marli Salmon could be the biggest winner from new Mikel Arteta contract

Marli Salmon has been tipped as one of Arsenal’s brightest young prospects for a while now, and it’s fair to say that he looks like the real deal. The teenager is comfortable at both right-back and centre-back, and he’s brilliant on the ball.

A young ball-playing defender couldn’t really ask for a better mentor than Mikel Arteta in the modern game.

Indeed, if there’s s any manager in world football that has proven they’re brilliant nurturing defensive talents in Salmon’s mould, it’s Arteta.

William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes are widely accepted to be two of the best defenders in the world, while the likes of Ben White, Piero Hincapie, Jurrien Timber, Riccardo Calafiori and Cristhian Mosquera have all improved substantially under Arteta’s tutelage.

For one reason or another, Arteta seems to have the magic formula when it comes to helping ball-playing defenders uncover their potential, and the fact that he will continue to work with Salmon in these formative years is vitally important.

Salmon may only have played five games for Arsenal so far, but, make no mistake about it, there’s plenty more where that came from.

Arteta and Salmon could well be a match made in heaven.