Rio Ferdinand has hit back at comparisons between himself and William Saliba after the Frenchman scored an own-goal in Arsenal's win over Leicester.
His setback against the Foxes came after he was named man of the match in the Gunners' opening-day win over Crystal Palace. Saliba's performance at Selhurst Park earned him high praise from many, as the game also marked his competitive debut for Arsenal.
Gary Neville was one pundit who was left particularly impressed by Saliba's display against Palace. That led to him comparing the Gunners star to Ferdinand, who he played alongside for nine years at Manchester United.
Ferdinand became the most expensive British footballer and the world's most expensive defender - for the second time - when he joined the Red Devils from Leeds in 2002. The Englishman was still only 24 when he joined United, with Saliba's young age leading to Neville picking up on some similarities.
"I was massively impressed by him. He reminded me of a young Rio Ferdinand. He’s such a young defender at 21," he told Sky Sports of Saliba after the 2-0 victory over the Eagles. Getting through that second half, when Arsenal weren’t at their best, would have been the most pleasing thing for Mikel Arteta."
Saliba suffered a setback against Leicester when he was caught out by James Justin's header and put the ball into his own net. Following the clash with Leicester, Ferdinand laughed off the comparisons between himself and the 21-year-old.
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"How old is he? How many Premier League games has he played? How many Premier League games had I played at that point? I broke the British transfer record at that time and people are drawing comparisons? It’s a madness! Give the boy time, give him some time!" Ferdinand told Vibe with Five.
"He’s doing well. Listen, you don’t judge players when it’s all going well. You say 'brilliant', I like to see the next phase. When it all goes against you and it’s a little bit of distress, now I still want to see the chest popping out. I still want to see shoulders back.
"And I still want to see you wanting the ball and see you on the front foot and showing that determination and desire… a lot of what we’re not getting at Man United. But Saliba, he is showing great potential. Young player of the year in France last year [while on loan at Marseille], he’s got a lot to do to make sure he stay in the team but he started off very, very well."
While Ferdinand has attempted to dampen expectations on Saliba, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta refused to place any blame on him for the own-goal. Instead, he insisted he was happier with his performance against the Foxes than he had been following the Palace win.
"It’s much easier to learn when that happens. I’m happier today than I was last week with Palace because of the way he played after that, I think it was incredible. The goal we conceded, obviously it was an own-goal from Willy and a disappointing moment but I’ve never seen in football the response from our crowd, it was just incredible," the Arsenal manager said.
