Jamie Carragher hammers ‘awful’ Arsenal star William Saliba vs Crystal Palace
William Saliba was slated by Jamie Carragher after enduring an “awful” start for Arsenal in their clash with Crystal Palace.
The Gunners went into the Premier League game at Selhurst Park on Saturday (21 December) looking for a second straight victory over the Eagles.
That came after Gabriel Jesus’ hat-trick had secured a 3-2 win over Oliver Glasner’s side in the League Cup in midweek, and here they would go on to record a 5-1 result.
Arsenal started this meeting equally as well with Jesus again getting on the scoresheet to put them 1-0 up inside six minutes, but Palace equalised just five minutes later when Ismaila Sarr was allowed to carry the ball to the edge of the area before curling a shot into the bottom far corner.
Carragher was far from impressed with Saliba’s failure to deal with the threat. Speaking on co-commentary on Sky Sports (5:41pm), the former Liverpool man said: “They work it down the side, they work a really good pass in the space between the lines, Saliba drops off too early and then doesn’t do enough to block the shot.
“We see Saliba there he’s dropping off, there’s no need to drop off, there’s no attacking player to drop off for and Sarr just uses him and bends the ball round him, he’s got to do more there the defender on two occasions. That takes nothing away from the finish. What a start to the game we’ve had.”
Although Arsenal quickly went back in front through another Jesus goal, Saliba very nearly had his side in trouble again after losing possession on the edge of the area, forcing goalkeeper David Raya into a good save from Jean Philippe-Mateta.
That led to more criticism for the Frenchman from Carragher as he added (5:53pm): “Saliba needs to sort himself out he’s had an awful start to this game. He’s one of the best in the Premier League but he is not at the races right yet”.
William Saliba had a tough start for Arsenal against Crystal Palace
Football Insider Opinion
There aren’t many would have expected Saliba to start in this fashion for the Gunners at Selhurst Park in all honesty.
As Carragher says, the Arsenal centre-back has established himself as one of the most best centre-backs in the division with his consistently solid performances.
His lack of decisiveness for the Palace goal and failure to keep possession for the chance after therefore felt very out of character.
Ultimately though he is human like every other player on the pitch and therefore mistakes are going to happen from him every now and again.
With Arsenal still able to establish a two-goal lead relatively early in the game he will have hoped he got away without these incidents costing his side too dearly.
Gunners fans meanwhile will be crossing their fingers that Saliba has now got those moments out of his system and they will not see many more of them going forward.
Mikel Arteta’s side ultimately took control and made the points safe through further goals from Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz and Declan Rice.
In other news, Arsenal are making transfer plans after Martin Odegaard update.
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