Arsenal’s ‘Rolls Royce’ is surely now one of the best players in his position the Premier League has ever seen
The Premier League champions were well represented at last night’s PFA awards.
Five Arsenal players were named in the PFA Team of the Year — David Raya, Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Declan Rice.
Raya, Gabriel and Rice were all nominated for PFA Players’ Player of the Year but were pipped by Bruno Fernandes.
But there’s a strong argument to be made that Arsenal’s best player wasn’t even nominated for the award.
William Saliba has become so consistently and assuredly excellent that people have simply gone numb to it.
He very rarely makes mistakes. He doesn’t have bad patches. He rarely has games where you wonder whether he’s quite at it.
He is, week in week out, the most composed and commanding centre-back in English football, and has been for three or four consecutive seasons now.
Last night, he was named in the PFA Team of the Year for the fourth consecutive time.
Only two players in Premier League history have more appearances in the PFA Team of the Year — Rio Ferdinand with six and Virgil van Dijk with five.
Ferdinand reached his fourth appearance at 29, while Van Dijk reached his at 33. Saliba is still just 25.
William Saliba is one of the best Premier League defenders of all time
The Premier League has produced a plethora of great centre-backs. Aside from Ferdinand and Van Dijk, you have John Terry, you have Tony Adams, Sol Campbell, Nemanja Vidic, Vincent Kompany, Tottenham fans will throw in Ledley King (for some reason) Jaap Stam, Ricardo Carvalho, Gabriel Magalhaes.
And Saliba will probably never truly get the flowers he deserves, at least while he’s an active player.
You only have to look at the frankly quite frightening number of people who deny that Van Dijk is (or was) better than Terry or Ferdinand. Nostalgia is a powerful drug.
But Saliba should absolutely be entering these sorts of conversations. If not now, then in another year or two.
He is the only player to have appeared in each of the last four PFA Team of the Year’s, and has done so in every season since being integrated into the first team at 21 years old.
Since becoming a starter during the 2022/23 campaign, he has never finished outside the top two in the Premier League.
Together with Gabriel, the best defensive record in England and in Europe has been largely built around his presence.
In terms of Arsenal’s own history, Tony Adams is the gold standard, having been captain for fourteen years and winning four league titles. He has a statue outside the Emirates for good reason.
Saliba isn’t there yet in terms of legacy and leadership, but in terms of pure ability? Another Premier League title and a Champions League winners’ medal would make it very hard to keep him out.
One of the best we have ever seen in this country. It’s time to start saying it out loud.
