Arsenal star William Saliba has taken much of the spot light for his defensive performances this season but Mikel Arteta believes the role of Gabriel Magalhaes has been just as important. The duo have formed a formidable defensive partnership that have seen the Gunners keep seven Premier League clean sheets from 14 games.
Despite Gabriel's crucial goals in deciding victories over Fulham and Chelsea, Saliba has been the man in the back line to receive the headlines with his commanding performances in the centre of defence seeing him compared to Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk.
Arteta was quick to shut down those comparisons though, replying to that query by saying: "I am really happy with where he is at the moment. He is Saliba, he's no one else, and he needs to make his own career." Despite Arteta's plea to not compare the two, the Frenchman has exuded calmness in the same way Van Dijk does.
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However, Arsenal could be missing Saliba for their Premier League return against West Ham on Boxing Day following his participation with France at the World Cup. The 21-year-old was low down in the pecking order for his national team though, playing just 27 minutes.
Nonetheless, Arteta did not completely reveal his Saliba decision when asked in his press conference yesterday. "Let’s see depending on how he comes back as well," The Arsenal boss said. "We have the data on what he’s done in training in terms of minutes he didn’t participate much but it was a huge experience for him. Let’s see. When he gets back we’ll see."
Saliba enjoyed an excellent loan spell at Marseille last season where he won Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year, an award previously won by Kylian Mbappe and Aurelien Tchouameni, and then proceeded to immediately settle into the Gunners back four this campaign, which, in the eyes of Arteta was made easier by Gabriel.
In his Sky Sports interview with Jamie Carragher the topic surrounding Saliba's impact was brought up, but the Spaniard was quick to interject and stress the important of his centre-back partner.
He said: "I don't see the centre-back positions as individuals, I think that it is a partnership. For a partnership to succeed there has to be some sort of chemistry between the two [Saliba and Gabriel] and the qualities of those two have to be complimented.
"From day one those two clicked. Sometimes you cannot predict that when you are in the market or when you have a player back from a loan. We were lucky to be fair that they clicked."
One Reddit user was quick to praise Arteta for his answer to Carragher's question on Saliba: "Love that the very first thing Mikel does is make sure to praise Gabriel as well, because those two really have clicked together instantly, almost as well as Per and Kos did a decade ago."
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