Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has put together a world-class team that is challenging for the Premier League title and still in contention for the Champions League.
The Gunners currently sit top of the Premier League table, though it’s an incredibly competitive title race alongside Liverpool and Manchester City.
And on Tuesday, Arsenal played out a 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals, with the second leg taking place next week.
One of the key facets of the current Gunners crop is a solid defence. Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba have been in outstanding form for most of the season.
Arteta actually had to go against popular opinion when it came to Saliba’s development. The Frenchman joined Arsenal in 2019, but he didn’t make his senior debut until 2022.
After getting on Arsenal’s books, Saliba spent the 2019-20 season with Saint-Etienne. He then took in two more loan spells, with Nice and Marseille.
Arteta’s decisions were vindicated as Saliba is now one of the Premier League’s best defenders and, at 23 years of age, can yet become much better.
What has Gary Lineker said about Arsenal star William Saliba?
However, the £190,000-a-week man’s importance to the Gunners hasn’t been replicated at international level. He is currently on the fringes of the France squad.
Didier Deschamps recently said of Saliba: “He is having a good season, but he also does things that I don’t like so much.
“For France, he has limited game time, but when he plays, that hasn’t necessarily gone well.”
With that in mind, it looks as though the Arsenal man’s chances of making the Euro 2024 squad are currently quite slim.
But Gary Lineker believes it would be a “mistake” if Deschamps leaves Saliba out of the contingent for the tournament in Germany.
Micah Richards, speaking on the latest episode of The Rest is Football, noted how “Saliba can’t even get into the team” for Les Bleus. “That’s how much cover they have at centre-half.”
Lineker replied: “That’s just a mistake, that’s a mistake if they leave him out.”
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