Bukayo Saka has praised Arsenal defender Ben White and stated that he enjoys playing with the versatile defender who is having an ‘incredible’ season.
At the start of the campaign, Mike Arteta opted to switch Ben White to a right-sided fullback in order to bring returning loanee, William Saliba, to the heart of Arsenal’s defence alongside Gabriel Magalhães.
It has worked wonders with all three, alongside summer signing Oleksandr Zinchenko, having outstanding seasons and playing a huge part in the north London club sitting at the top of the Premier League table.
It says a lot about where the former Brighton man is and what he is producing when Saka isn’t the only one bigging up his teammate because Martin Odegaard also stated that White has been ‘really good’.
Of course, all of this is music to the ears of Arsenal fans because they are the ones cooking on the Premier League stage and sitting with an eight-point lead over second-placed, Manchester City – but Roy Keane did warn, with goal-crazy Erling Haaland at the Etihad, the season is ‘not over yet’.
Nonetheless, that lead at the top was helped by their 4-1 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday, who recently re-appointed Roy Hodgson as manager, with Saka singing the praises of White after that match, as he told Premier League Productions (19/03/23 at 4:10 pm).
“I believe we (Saka and White) do (have a strong partnership going on),” said Saka. “Ben White was incredible. He has been incredible all season.
“We are building a great partnership. Me, him and Martin (Odegaard) on that right side. Of course, I am not going to tell you the secrets and what we work on in the training ground.
“But I am enjoying playing with them.”
WHITE’S ENGLAND SNUB
At the 2022 Qatar World Cup, White was a firm backup to Gareth Southgate and he wasn’t expected to earn many minutes on football’s biggest stage.
So, the versatile Arsenal star being in that position didn’t surprise many, but the 25-year-old returning home during the knockout stages did create headlines.
There was a suggestion that the £50 million man had a falling out with England’s assistant Steven Holland, at the time, it was questioned as to what had actually happened.
Well, they say there is no smoke without fire and given that White has been outstanding this season, yet he hasn’t been selected for England’s latest squad, then that probably tells you everything you need to know about that return home from the World Cup.
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