William Saliba has finally signed his contract extension with Arsenal, with a deal reportedly lasting up to five years.

Fabrizio Romano reports that William Saliba’s contract with Arsenal is finally done and sealed, with the documents signed on Thursday.

In June, Saliba accepted Arsenal’s offer of a four-year deal with an option to extend for a fifth. But he didn’t immediately sign on the dotted line, as he was on his holiday break.

Romano claims the French international has put pen to paper at last, with only the official announcement remaining before we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Saliba’s previous deal would have expired in 2024, but Arsenal will now be able to keep him around until 2028.

This update follows a similar story with Reiss Nelson over recent weeks. Like Saliba, Nelson agreed a four-plus-one-year deal with Arsenal last month, but he was away on holiday at the time.

Nelson then signed the documents on Wednesday, though Arsenal are yet to announce either new contract.

Saliba is back in training with Arsenal, joining up with Mikel Arteta’s squad over the last couple of days.

The centre-back missed out on the end of the 2022/23 campaign with an injury, and the back issue also saw him missing international duty with France in June.

As a result, Saliba hasn’t played a game since mid-March, but he should have the entirety of pre-season to get up to speed again.

The Arsenal squad will be delighted to have him back, with Gabriel Jesus recently pointing to Saliba’s injury as the turning point in the season.

“When I got injured, Eddie replaced me very well. Then we signed Leo (Trossard). We kept the pace. But when Saliba got injured, it was complicated,” Jesus admitted.

“The other defenders are good, but we were playing in a certain way. Look at the stats, we concede a lot less with him.

“When he plays, we concede few goals, when he doesn’t play, the number increases.”