‘He suffered’: Arsenal sent a message about Gabriel and William Saliba after Brighton loss

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Don Hutchison says Gabriel Magalhaes has ‘suffered’ without the injured William Saliba following Arsenal’s Premier League title-denting defeat to Brighton on Sunday.

The 22-year-old has missed Arsenal’s last nine Premier League games, which has seen them suffer two defeats and concede 17 goals in the process and secure only one clean sheet.

This end-of-season collapse from Mikel Arteta’s side has coincided with William Saliba’s absence, with Hutchison adding that the Frenchman had a positive impact on Gabriel Magalhaes when he was out on the pitch, as he told Premier League Productions (14/05/23 at 9:30 pm).

There were some pretty big games that Saliba missed, including their 4-1 humbling at the hands of Manchester City, where Erling Haaland caused stand-in centre-back, Rob Holding, all sorts of issues.

Weeks later, January signing Jakub Kiwior would be handed starts, but during the defeat against Brighton, he proceeded to do something that left Ian Wright unimpressed.

Given that the Gunners are still in the early stages of trying to build up their team to become champions of England, then that one absence is going to hurt them more than others, which was touched upon by Hutchison.

“I think, not only did he have an impact on the players playing in front of him,” said Hutchison. “I think Gabriel has suffered without Saliba being there.

“I think Gabriel, as a centre-back, likes to get touch tight and get very aggressive. Whereas Saliba’s pace in behind and they made a great partnership.”

WILLIAM SALIBA’S INJURY

In 2019, now-Aston Villa boss Unai Emery brought the highly-rated teenager to Arsenal, but it wasn’t until the start of this current campaign that Saliba would make his debut.

A few loan spells in France have helped the ball-playing centre-back transform into such a player that he is probably now their most important defender.

Even though Gabriel, Ben White and Oleksandr Zinchenko are the senior stars at the back, it’s Saliba who has been the top defensive performer, therefore, it’s no surprise his back injury played a part in Arsenal’s title charge taking a turn for the worst.