William Gallas says he likes William Saliba but feels his game is still missing a certain dimension before he can count himself among the Premier League's best defenders.
Saliba ranked at no.2 in FourFourTwo's list of the best centre-backs in the world right now, but Gallas would not even have the Arsenal centre-back among the best three in England at present...or even the best one at the Emirates Stadium.
Gallas believes that in fact Gabriel currently has the edge over his teammate, while Liverpool's imposing centre-back duo have left the former Arsenal and Chelsea defender most impressed of all.
What William Saliba needs to do to rank himself among Premier League's best
Speaking to OLBG, Gallas said: "For me, [my favourite players] will always be the defenders, because I'm a supporter of defenders; I’m loyal to my fellow defenders.
"There are three players that come to mind right now if I had to tell you who I think is the best in the Premier League. I will say [Ibrahima] Konate, from Liverpool, because he's been a monster from the beginning of the season, and [Virgil] van Dijk, who is playing next to him.
"For Arsenal, you’ve got Gabriel. What Gabriel’s doing makes a difference. He scores goals. At the moment, he's always the guy who helps his team to win games on free kicks, corners. He's always around and he’s a big threat from set pieces. He scored again against West Ham.
"Saliba, I like him, but at the moment, his performance is not like last season, and Gabriel is performing better than him, whereas last season, Saliba was more consistent than Gabriel.
"The difference is the goals. I would love Saliba to get more goals – I set him that challenge at the beginning of the season to put himself in the frame as one of the best CBs in the world.
"When you score goals as a defender, important goals, the fans will always remember you."
Gallas went on: "That's why me and John Terry, when we were at Chelsea, we were always competing about who is going to score more goals in the season. It was a good challenge, but unfortunately, he always beat me!"
French international Gallas represented Chelsea from 2001-2006 before leaving for Arsenal, where he spent four years before joining Tottenham.
