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1 month ago
9 Arsenal defender William Saliba has been heavily criticised by the French press after a poor game for his country against Belgium in the Nations League.
Saliba is widely considered one of the very finest centre-backs in world football at the moment, and it’s not often we see him struggle as much as he did yesterday evening, even if Les Bleus still ended up beating Belgium 2-1.
According to the Metro, Saliba has been singled out for strong criticism from a variety of French journalists, many of whom seem to agree that the 23-year-old was one of the team’s weaker performances, and that it was the worst they’d seen him play for his country.
Saliba gave away the ball at one point in the build-up to Belgium’s goal, while earlier in the game he’d slipped and given away a penalty, though Youri Tielemans missed from the spot, letting the Arsenal man off the hook.
Arsenal defender William Saliba in action for France (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)AFP journalist Emmanuel Barranguet was quoted by the Metro as saying that the Arsenal defender had “played his worst match in Blue”.
Eurosport France, meanwhile, said it was a “painful evening for the Arsenal defender”.
Saliba has rarely put a foot wrong at club level, however, so will this really bother Arsenal fans?
As long as the Gunners star returns to his best for Mikel Arteta’s side this weekend, any concerns will surely be quickly forgotten.

 
If anything, Saliba falling out of favour with the French national team might be seen as a positive by some Gooners, who won’t want him risking injuries and fatigue by playing too much football.
This would perhaps be a bit of a blow for Saliba himself, though, as he’ll surely take a lot of pride in playing for his country, which could also afford him opportunities outside of his club football to play in big games and learn from those experiences.
