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Arsenal defender Ben White has hailed teammates William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes following the Gunners' 1-1 draw against Liverpool on Saturday (December 23). The north London giants remained at the top of the table with a stalemate against Jurgen Klopp's side at Anfield.
Following the game, Arsenal defender Ben White lavished praise on the Gunners' centre-back duo of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes. The latter scored for Mikel Arteta's side while Saliba was adjudged as the Player of the Match.
Saliba and Gabriel have forged a strong partnership since last season, which led to White shifting to an unorthodox right-back role. White lauded the partnership of Saliba and Gabriel as "unbelievable."
White said that Saliba and Gabriel complement each other very well and are hard to be beaten by either pace or power. He also hailed the Arsenal duo for their consistent showings week in, week out. Speaking to The Evening Standard, White said, as quoted by TBR Football:
“They are unbelievable together. They are so strong and powerful. They make it easier for everyone around them. They just don’t do too much wrong, do they? They are so consistent every game."
The former Brighton & Hove Albion star added:
“No one is dominating them speed wise or strength wise. It’s hard for strikers to come up against and find anything positive to come out of the game.”
Arsenal have plenty of strength and depth in every department and defence is no exception. However, Gabriel and Saliba have been the most used centre-back pairing this season for Mikel Arteta's side. Jakub Kiwior has mostly been used off the bench while Jurrien Timber has been out with an ACL injury.
Ian Wright criticizes 2 Arsenal stars for their failure to prevent Mohamed Salah's equalizer in Liverpool draw
Arsenal icon Ian Wright has criticized Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus for their mistakes in Mohamed Salah's equalizer for Liverpool. The Gunners opened the scoring with Gabriel Magalhaes bagging an early goal but Salah restored parity around the half-hour mark.
Liverpool full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold came up with an extraordinary long pass for Salah, who did well to cut inside and beat David Raya with power and precision. Ian Wright has criticized Gabriel Jesus for allowing Alexander-Arnold so much time on the ball to pick his pass.
The Gunners icon was also far from pleased with Zinchenko, who could not stop Salah from cutting inside. Wright said, as quoted by Metro:
"The thing is, firstly, you cannot give Trent Alexander-Arnold that much space. This is a danger man. Get in his face. Try and deny him (Salah) the ball in the first place, let them pass it to someone else. Once you get into this situation (Salah with the ball) he wants to come inside, and Zinchenko knows this, but not many people can stop him. You’ve got to do a lot more. You cannot let him get inside that easy. It’s margins. It’s the margins our manager always speaks about in terms of winning games."
He added:
"You cannot give Salah that time, you cannot give Trent that time. Someone should have been closer to Trent. Once that ball goes over to Salah, someone should have been across to make sure he cannot cut inside. That’s why we have drawn that game. We could not stop that happening."
Arsenal remain at the top of the Premier League table with 40 points from 18 games, one point above both Liverpool and Aston Villa.
