Arsenal’s William Saliba: ‘Everyone takes long throws, everyone takes corners, it’s just that we do it better than the others.’ | OneFootball

Arsenal’s play-style has come in for some serious criticism this season, perhaps even more so due to the way that the season concluded. 

In the final game of the club season, Arsenal came up against Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the UEFA Champions League. It was billed as a contrast of styles – beauty and the beast. PSG’s fluidity and technical ability have been lauded, whilst their opponents have become defined by defensive robustness and an ability to maximise deadball situations by, once again, leaning on physical superiority. 

It is a play style that allowed the London club to win their first Premier League in 22 years, even if they would narrowly miss out on a maiden UCL title, as PSG completed the back-to-back thanks to a win on penalties. 

Speaking in an interview with L’Équipe, William Saliba (25) traced the evolution of Arsenal’s play style. “The first season that I arrived (2022/23) we played incredible football. It is a year in which we deserved to win the title. People mocked us because we finished second. In the second season, too, we played well with the ball, and people mocked us – ‘bottle, bottle’. Last season, too, we played pretty well, even if we played less than in the two previous seasons, and we finished second,” said the France international.

Arsenal defender Saliba ‘Now that we have won, they can’t say anything.’

He continued, “This season, even if I don’t agree with what other people say, as if we are a team that just goes long. We also play with the ball, even if, sometimes, we score a lot more than the other teams from set-pieces. It’s mad! And now, in the Premier League, everyone takes long throws, everyone takes corners, it’s just that we do it better than the others. That’s life, and we’ll continue like that.”

Saliba concluded, “There was a lot of mockery. Even when we were first, they said that we would slip up, that we would rediscover our second place. It’s teasing. It’s football. It’s like that. To change that, you just have to win. Now that we have won, they can’t say anything.”

GFFN | Luke Entwistle