The Gunners, after deciding not to appeal Saliba’s sending off against Bournemouth, will surely be without the Frenchman for the game against the Reds on Sunday.
This is not just a blow to our chances of emerging victorious but to our season as well, due to the negative effects a loss might have in the long term. The injuries we have in defence will not be doing us any favours in providing a capable deputy in his stead for the Liverpool game.
Jurrien Timber, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Riccardo Calafiori are all viable options who can replace him, however all three will most likely miss the game through injury, the only reason I use “most likely” is because Timber has a very slight chance of being back in time for the game. Other than that happening, then we might see a makeshift option being utilized instead.
Our Record without Saliba in the side, no matter who replaces him, should be a concern ahead of the impending visit of Liverpool to the Emirates. He didn’t miss a single minute of Premier League football last season, but gooners will remember his absence being a telling factor in our capitulation for the PL title back in the 2022/2023 campaign.
To put in into stats, when the Gunners were without Saliba in the final 11 matches of that season, we picked up only 18 points from a possible 33, winning 5, drawing 3 and losing 3 matches in what was a complete capitulation – in a title race that we controlled for the majority of that campaign.
The table below of some of Arsenals stats per 90 With or Without Saliba in those 11 games also further highlights his importance to the side.
Stats. With Saliba. Without Saliba
Points |
2.4 |
1.6 |
Goals conceded |
0.9 |
1.6 |
XG Against |
1.0 |
1.4 |
This should have us worried even though he’ll be absent for only one game, it’s not an ideal opposition to be losing a player of his importance to, but we’ll be hoping to come out with a win in this encounter to keep ourselves in the title race!!!
Who replaces him can be anyone’s guess but who would you pick to partner Gabriel at the weekend?
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Saliba will be missed,no doubt about that, but it’s worth noting that in the games without him,his replacement was Holding. I love Rob but he wasn’t a great all round defender. At the very least,whoever will be replacing Saliba will be an upgrade on Holding and that should lessen our concerns.Besides,our team generally wasn’t great defensively in those games without Saliba.
This is what makes me laugh, how a lot of fans are having a panic attack because Saliba is missing.
Yes he’s a big loss, but if the team is going to be so affected by him being missing, then it doesn’t say much for the squad does it.
Agree 100%. Its upto the manager (thats his job) to find the formula to work with the players he has. We are not weak, we have replacements. Is he a fairweather manager or is he a top manager?
Many fans are concerned about the absence of Saliba. This is not unreasonable given the stable and effective partnership he has had with Gabriel. In addition, several other players are absent through injury.
Yes but David, some of us fans are worried, this is Artetas weakness. Not dealing with players out, like the top managers do. Fergie, never moaned about his players out. I remember him sending a second rate team to the Emirates and beating us fair and square 2-1 and we put a strong team out. Managers like him, Pep and Klopp, just play with what they have and still get results. What they did was trust the players and themselves.
I disagree.
We have had one of the best defensive partnerships in world football for the last couple of seasons. That is not easily replaced by any team.
It also simply not credible to suggest that other managers have just got on with it. The teams/squads put together by MC and Liverpool in the last few years are stronger than many of the historical PL teams from the era of Fergie etc. Even then Klopp’s team fell out of the CL places when they were beset by injuries. Klopp’s team from last season fell out of contention for the PL despite being contenders for part of the season and having a very strong squad. The media and pundits gave them a pass but have been all too happy to label Arsenal as “bottlers”.
MC have one of the best squads ever managed by one of the best managers ever. It is disingenuous to say Pep just gets on with it with the squad he has had since being at MC.
Has Arteta moaned? It is simply a fact that we have a quite a lot of players out mainly due to injuries.
But that is not true David at all. That is your opinion not fact. The team sheets they put together were down to the manager and the reason they won, was because they were able to overcome obstacles put in their way. When other manager couldn’t. A great manager manages problems better. A faur weather manager wins nothing at all. Because it isn’t all fairweather times in a season.
But, Arteta is not moaning…
Arsenal still has a weakened defense already, with Tomiyaso, Timber out injured, also with Zinchenko and White lacking match fitness and also now Calafiori doubtful. To insist Arsenal fans having panic attack is laughable says a lot about you. We are talking about a possibility of +-4 defenders missing and some think that is not weakening the team 🤔. But one thing about Arteta he’s not running around making excuses in the media.
Oyama,
No, Arteta lets the players make the excuses for him.
How so @Derek ?
I hear you @Derek, I think its one those instances about 10 men when he was asked why he got defensive in those games.
But anyways my point was that you can’t criticize/laugh fans for panicking when Saliba is not available in this scenario. Playing a top team with +-5 defenders unavailable. Surely any team in the world would be weakened.
Oyama,
Having read your piece I will back track a little bit. I’ll give you the defense is being stretched at this moment in time. And yes I was harsh on them for that, (My bad).
But really what frustrates me is that the attack hasn’t been functioning all season really, and with the likes of Jesus and Sterling being the back up players, it doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.
Jesus hasn’t scored a single goal so far this season, and he doesn’t look like scoring, and I’m afraid any Arsenal fan waiting for Sterling to light Arsenal’s game up are in for a big disappointment, he might have the odd good game here or there, but his peak years were at Liverpool and City. But as usual, Arsenal take Chelsea’s cast offs. And in a lot of cases, we’ve seen how that’s turned out haven’t we.
Arsenal learn a lesson, and steer well clear of Chelsea’s cast offs.
But as I said earlier, your right about the defense. (My apologies).
I hear you 💯 @Derek
Sterling was a big big gamble, am happy it wasn’t a permanent signing. But let’s watch the space
Oyama,
Well when they play badly and then its the old were short on numbers routine.
And when they are all there, its the ref🤣
And when its not the ref, its VAR🤣
Reggie,
I like your style.
Saliba is our best defender but we have a very good group of defenders. We can cope without him but we are better with him
Correct! It shouldn’t be a killer blow. Just a problem that can be worked at. That is the managers job.
Unfortunately Saliba is the only defensive position that has no covered by a proper replacement. At this moment only Timber look the most adequate substitute, but he has injury concerns too.
I thing that if we not loose this game we may still have hopes for a PL title.