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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Samuel Meade

William Saliba adds further weight to Ian Wright's Arsenal confusion

William Saliba once again showed his class in Marseille's win over former club Saint Etienne on Saturday night.

The young centre-half has returned to his homeland on loan for the second successive season.

Saliba has been unable to impress Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, despite not playing a single minute under the Spaniard.

The 20-year-old is highly-rated in France and his signing was seen as a major coup for the Gunners back in the summer of 2019.

His Arsenal career has not taken off though, but whilst he enjoys his time in France his parent club are enduring a horrid start to the season.

Arteta saw his side ship five at Manchester City - their third straight defeat without scoring.

Arsenal played with a barely recognisable back three of Rob Holding, Calum Chambers and Sead Kolasinac at the Etihad.

The latter could still be offloaded and Ian Wright has questioned how the Bosnian is getting the nod over Saliba.

He said: "I think between the goalkeepers and the central defenders it’s all too easy. And I’m supposed to believe that Kolasinac – someone that they’re trying to get rid of – is better than William Saliba?

"Saliba, who is out on loan and apparently not at the standard [required for this level]. So if he’s not at the standard to play in this team – and Kolasinac can play – why have we bought him?! Because if Kolasinac can play in front of him, what’s going on?! Why have we bought him?"

In Marseille's 3-1 success Saliba won 8 out of his 10 duels, completed five clearances and one interception.

Wright did not let Arteta get away without any criticism, adding: "I’d like to think the players got a little bit of a blasting. But saying that, I think a lot of it should be at his [Arteta’s] door as well.

"He knows exactly what to expect from Man City, we need to be a lot more organised playing against a team where the margin for error is so small. And we didn’t. We didn’t look organised enough, nowhere near enough."

Arteta accepted that results were well below standards.

"I am sorry we could not give the result, and we have to fix it," he said.

"We have to regroup, get a lot of players hopefully back that we need, and try to start work.

"Refresh the minds, it's been really tough with everything that has happened, and we need to face the challenge."

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