Gabriel Azzopardi News

Arsenal warned William Saliba will make Real Madrid transfer move - 'The door is open'

Former Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly is adamant William Saliba will one day play for Real Madrid after declaring him the world's best centre-half. Saliba has flourished at the Emirates ever since becoming a regular in 2022, which came after several loan spells away. He now forms a centre-half partnership with Gabriel that has been regarded as the best in Europe. Arsenal claimed Premier League glory last season with their defensive solidity the foundation of their success. Desailly now believes that Saliba has marked himself out as the best in the world in his position, exceeding the likes of Virgil van Dijk, who had been the standard for so long. The Frenchman also suggested that Gabriel's plaudits come off the back of him playing alongside Saliba. The ex-Chelsea captain Desailly told Sportscasting : "Who do I think is the best centre-back in the world? It's not Virgil van Dijk. "He has his level, we know, there's no doubt he's a great defender. But on some occasions, he has shown a little bit of weakness. "I would put William Saliba there, even though he has some problems with his back, I think he's in the conversation for the world's best centre-back. Saliba is definitely one of the best ones. Gabriel is only there because of Saliba – so Gabriel, no, he's not in the conversation. "Who else can we say? At Manchester United , there's nothing. Chelsea , not at that level. Inter Milan, AC Milan, absolutely not. So I would say Saliba is part of the defensive elite who have that consistency and are capable of winning their one-v-ones no matter who comes across them." In September last year, Saliba signed a five-year deal to keep him at the north Londoners until the summer of 2030, but a move has still been talked up. Desailly foresees a day when Saliba is playing for Los Blancos. "Yes, yes. I do expect William Saliba to one day wear the colours of Real Madrid," he said. "He's committed to Arsenal for the next, I don’t know, four years. "But he's young, so why not? The door is open, and all the best players want to play for Real Madrid at some point in their careers. The door is open. But not now. Not now. He is the best central defender, so it is what it is today." Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.

2026-07-02

Arsenal are despondent, but the Premier League race is far from over | Jonathan Wilson

It was probably Arsenal’s best performance in two months, but that will be scant consolation. Manchester City’s win on Sunday leaves Pep Guardiola’s side in control of the title race; they will go top of the Premier League on goal difference if they beat Burnley at Turf Moor on Wednesday. Both sides will then have five games to play. Sunday’s game was decided by desperately fine margins. What prevented Eberechi Eze’s whipped shot from just outside the box going in? An inch? Half of one? Gabriel also struck the woodwork, while Kai Havertz headed a great chance a fraction over the crossbar in injury time. It was a defeat that has handed City the advantage in the title race, but it could very easily have been a battling draw to preserve Arsenal’s lead and, perhaps more importantly, restore morale. But then City also hit the woodwork and had 15 chances to Arsenal’s nine; while Arsenal’s goal was as freakish as they come. Bemoaning fortune makes no sense on either side. Nobody should think the race is over. While there has been a clear sense of City shifting up a gear since the League Cup final, they are not the remorseless force of old. After the Burnley game, they face Everton away, Brentford at home, Bournemouth away and Aston Villa at home, as well as a home game against Crystal Palace that is yet to be scheduled. This is a side that last month drew against Nottingham Forest and West Ham and were well-beaten by Real Madrid. There is no reason to assume they will win six out of six. Arsenal have Newcastle and Fulham at home, West Ham away, Burnley at home and Crystal Palace away. It’s entirely plausible they could win all of those. And they will have the benefit of having Gabriel available after he escaped a red card for flicking his head into the face of Erling Haaland, a decision that was very difficult to understand. Haaland, effectively, paid the price for standing looking at him with an air of magnificent bemusement; a different player would have collapsed and then it’s hard to see how Gabriel could have avoided dismissal. (It’s a side issue, but this is why players dive and feign injury; the flick of the head was clear but Gabriel got away with it because of Haaland’s refusal to react, something that disadvantaged City in the short term of the game but also in the sense that the defender will not now serve a three-match ban.) Equally, if Rodri’s groin injury is serious, City may be missing him for some or all of what remains of the season. But to say there is no need for despondency at Arsenal is perhaps to miss the point. They have become despondent. They have begun to doubt themselves. They didn’t play badly on Sunday. There was no sense of them bottling the game. There was a bizarre error early on as David Raya was almost caught in possession by Haaland but that aside there was no obvious sign of anxiety or nerves, which have stifled them in recent weeks. They played just as you’d expect an away side at City to play. The problem is that having won only one of their previous five games (admittedly only one of them in the league), this had become a match in which Arsenal couldn’t afford any slip-ups. The psychological momentum is now with City. And this was a game that highlighted one other clear problem: their lack of an elite centre-forward. Viktor Gyökeres does not hold the ball up well and, for all the goals he scored in the Championship for Coventry and in the Portuguese League for Sporting, is not an ultra-sharp goalscorer. At least one high-level Premier League club looked at him at Sporting and concluded he is not quite good enough at getting shots away in tight spaces. Havertz probably played that hold-up role better on Sunday than Gyökeres could have, but he is not a striker. All players miss chances, but how often would Haaland have missed that late header? Or, more pertinently, how often would peak Alexander Isak have done so? How different the season might have looked had Arsenal gone big early in the summer for the Sweden international rather than signing Gyökeres and Noni Madueke. But that is something to try to put right in the summer. What matters from Mikel Arteta and Arsenal’s point of view is to pick themselves up, put the gloom of the past month behind them and win their five remaining league games to at least put pressure on City. Their chance of the league title has not entirely gone, and they have a Champions League semi-final to play. Re-establishing momentum when it has been lost is extremely difficult, but there have been plenty of twists in this title race already. Why should there not be one more? This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email [email protected], and he’ll answer the best in a future edition

2026-04-20

Arsenal news: Mikel Arteta given painful title race reality check as cost of failure clear

After defeat to Bournemouth left Arsenal's previously dominant title race lead in danger, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta has come under scrutiny. He has a chance to get back on track against Sporting CP on Wednesday but it's notable that one of the team's biggest weapons has failed to deliver as regularly of late. Arsenal beat Sporting 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final last week. If they can complete the job on home soil it could give them belief ahead of what looks like a Premier League title showdown away to Manchester City over the weekend. While some players have returned after recent injury setbacks, others remain doubtful and several missed the latest training session . Among the list of absentees are captain Martin Odegaard and forward Bukayo Saka , who hasn't played since the Carabao Cup final in March. Arsenal had a quadruple in their sights before that Wembley defeat but could now end the season empty-handed. Here are our latest lines, including what that outcome could mean for Arteta. FOLLOW OUR ARSENAL FB PAGE! Latest Gunners news and more on our dedicated Facebook page Arsenal defender Gabriel has admitted it is becoming tougher for the team to take advantage of their set-piece strength as rivals wise up. The centre-back and his team-mates had plenty of joy from set plays in the first half of the season but it hasn't been plain sailing since the turn of the year to give the Gunners a painful title race reality check. "Yes, of course, it’s getting more and more difficult because when I arrive in the box often there will be two players coming to mark me," Gabriel told club media . "That’s really good for us though, because as I say, it’s not only me who’s going to score. It opens up spaces for the others and they can all score too. "Whenever I go forward for a free-kick or a corner, I know it’s a big chance for us. I put that thought in my head: ’I can score this one.’ It’s my mentality at every single corner." Former Premier League striker Chris Sutton believes Mikel Arteta's job will be at risk if Arsenal don't end this season with a trophy. Sutton suggested that, while he doesn't believe Arsenal will have bottled it by not winning the league title, some fans may see things differently and the cost of failing to lift the title for Arteta could be his job. "I do think he has a problem if he doesn't get over the line in the Premier League or the Champions League," Sutton said on the Monday Night Club . "I think it changes the landscape and the way Arsenal fans will view him, because he's been there long enough..." He added: "If he (Arteta) doesn't have the support of the Arsenal fans then that's when a decision will need to be made. So I do think it's make-or-break for him in terms of they have to win either the Premier League or Champions League or I think he'll be a goner." Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.

2026-04-15