Arsenal loanee named in Europa League Teams of the Week | OneFootball

Jakub Kiwior has helped FC Porto to three consecutive clean sheets on his loan spell so far, earning the latest with a clearance off the line.

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Arsenal defender Jakub Kiwior has made an excellent start on loan with FC Porto, with the Portuguese club keeping clean sheets in each of his first three appearances for the side.

Thursday’s match away to RB Salzburg was perhaps the best individual display from the Poland international so far, with Flashscore and Sofascore naming him in their Europa League Teams of the Week.

Kiwior earned his spot with four clearances (including one off the line), four blocked shots, two interceptions, two tackles, and 93% passes completed. He won all of his individual duels in a dominant defensive performance.

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Despite Porto’s defensive solidity, the match remained tense until the very end, with the away side opening the scoring in the 93rd minute. Kiwior admitted afterwards that it wasn’t an easy victory.

“It was a great night because we won, but it was a tough game,” Kiwior said. “But we’re happy because we won.

“[The result] gives us a lot of energy to believe in every game and that we can win like this, because we played as a team. We believed and won in the last minute.

“Today was a great victory for us and we have to change some things in our game to win more.”

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Porto will be very pleased with their loan signing so far, with the expectation that Kiwior will make his move permanent at the end of the season.

Though Porto technically only have an option to buy, rather than an obligation, Arsenal also have the capacity to activate the option. The two clubs formulated such a deal so that neither would be able to back out unless the other party agreed to it.

If Kiwior continues to play well, the expectation will be that Porto have no qualms about activating the option. If things go south, it’s still likely that Arsenal would activate it and the transfer would go ahead anyway.

David Ornstein reported at the time of the initial loan transfer that the total deal is worth a guaranteed €25m rising to €27m.