France manager Didier Deschamps' decision to not hand William Saliba a World Cup debut has garnered a massive response from Arsenal supporters on social media.
Having been named in the final 26-man squad and with Manchester United defender Raphael Varane a doubt, there had been talk of the Gunners ace being rewarded for his brilliant form at club level so far this season by starting for Les Bleus against Australia this evening.
However, Deschamps has had other ideas. The Arsenal defender is named in the matchday squad, although he is on the bench as Bayern Munich's Dayot Upamecano and Liverpool's Ibrahima Konate are chosen as the centre-back partnership for the defending champions.
READ MORE: Didier Deschamps' shock William Saliba France decision hands Arsenal perfect transfer blueprint
Within seconds of the starting line-up being announced, a number of Gunners supporters replied with their displeasure at seeing Saliba left out - even if it's only France's opening game of the tournament and that he could still make an appearance at some point this evening.
@RaqzyAFC said: "Saliba not starting? France losing then", @bsleeves007 asked: "Upamecano, Konate over Saliba??", @zu17a had the same question: "Bro how is Deschamps starting Konate over Saliba?" and @FinnAFC stated: "Start Saliba if you want to win football matches."
One possible reason as to why these Arsenal fans are not best pleased with Deschamps' decision is because after the 2-0 defeat against Denmark back in September, he hinted at inexperience being an issue and Saliba has the same number of caps as Upamecano and five more than Konate.
"I don’t think it’s a shipwreck, we also had a lot of chances but we were ineffective, we made some errors when playing out from the back," Deschamps told TF1 after the game. "It’s a young French side, where the majority of the players don’t have experience at the very highest level.
"It’s not a question of formations, but when you have four corners and a Danish player is left alone each time, you can play with three, five or twelve at the back, it doesn’t change a thing. There’s no need to worry, the fact that the players with international experience are coming back will do us good."
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