Arsenal icon Lee Dixon is concerned William Saliba could 'fall to the pieces' after a confident display on his Gunners debut.
The French defender looked assured at the back in the 2-0 win over Crystal Palace and is yet to concede a goal when starting alongside Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ben White and Gabriel Magalhaes. Saliba's brilliant debut performance led to Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville comparing the 21-year-old to a young Rio Ferdinand.
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers has also heaped praise upon the French defender ahead of the Gunners' clash against the Foxes this weekend with Mikel Arteta set to name the same back four for a second successive game. However, amongst all the praise the 21-year-old has received in the past week, Dixon has expressed concerns that Saliba's performances could tail off should he suffer a dent in confidence if Arsenal struggle against the top teams.
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Speaking on the Seaman Says Podcast, Lee Dixon has expressed some concerns about William Saliba despite his fantastic Premier League debut for the Gunners. The former Arsenal defender said: “He performed brilliantly well, Saliba, 21 years of age, he’s been away and everyone’s now saying ‘where’s he been?’ He’s been learning his trade and doing the right thing.
"Chelsea loan out 50 players a year and nobody says anything. We send one out and it’s as if we don’t know what we’re doing and we should have had him back earlier."
Despite praising Saliba for 'doing the right thing' by going out on loan last term, Dixon does have his reservations regarding the 21-year-old's performances the rest of the season. “Come back to me in 37 games and we’ll give you an assessment of how Saliba has done," Dixon added.
"As well as he’s done and as confident as he looked on the ball, that could go. I don’t know him as a player, but under pressure at Anfield, say if he gets nutmegged and gives a couple of goals away, he might go to pieces.
"You might have to leave him out of the team because he’s now a broken footballer and you need to protect him. There’s a million questions to be answered, but you can only give an opinion on what you’ve seen.”
Saliba's next test comes against Leicester in the Gunners' first home game of the season, with the French defender set to face a difficult opponent in Jamie Vardy. The 21-year-old dealt with the issues posed by Odsonne Edouard, Wilfried Zaha and Andre Ayew last week, but will need to rely much more on his physical attributes to deal with Vardy.
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