Manchester United icon Wes Brown has praised William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes for their consistent performances in the Arsenal backline.
Saliba and Magalhaes have formed one of the best central defensive partnerships in the Premier League. The duo have played a big part in the Gunners’ progress.
In a recent interview, Brown said that Saliba and Gabriel are among the top three centre-backs in the English top-flight alongside Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk.
The former United defender added that the trio absolutely love to defend and they have been ‘very consistent’ with their displays in the heart of the defence.
He said: “Virgil van Dijk is the best. Then I would say the Arsenal pair of Gabriel and William Saliba are one and two respectively.
“What I like about those three, when defending, I like someone who is there to defend first of all.
“Players that love to defend and know that their job is to be solid and try to achieve as many clean sheets as possible. All three of those guys absolutely love to defend.
“When you watch the games, you can see that strikers don’t like playing against them three. Any striker has to have an almost perfect game to come out on top against them.
“They are the best three and they are very consistent with it as well.”
Saliba and Gabriel have been brilliant as a central defensive pairing for Arsenal. The club had the best defensive record in the league last term, but just missed out on the title.
The Gunners have not had the same defensive resolve this time around, but this has been largely due to defensive injuries. The club have not had a settled back four for some time.
Meanwhile, Arsenal are yet to be rewarded for their improvement over the last two seasons. The club have not won any major silverware since the FA Cup back in 2020.
The London giants need to end the streak this campaign and the Carabao Cup could be their best chance of doing so. They face Crystal Palace in the quarter-final tomorrow.
Manager Mikel Arteta has gone with a weakened and heavily rotated line-up in the last two rounds of the competition, but we could see a full-strength side against Palace.
Arsenal face the same opposition in the Premier League on the road on Saturday evening.
