Brentford boss Thomas Frank has dubbed Arsenal centre-back William Saliba the ‘missing link’ that has helped turn the table-topping north Londoners into title contenders.
The 21-year-old spent last season on loan at Marseille, where he impressed enormously, and immediately claimed a starting role upon his return to the Emirates.
Saliba has started alongside Gabriel Magalhaes in all 20 of Arsenal’s Premier League matches this season, with the side conceding just 17 times – the second best defensive record in the division.
Frank feels the Frenchman’s return has been a key ingredient in the Gunners’ title charge, while he also praised the additions of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus.
Asked how Arsenal have gone from fifth to title contenders so quickly, Frank said at his pre-match press conference on Friday: ‘I think it’s big credit to Arsenal.
‘I think maybe it was Saliba who came back this summer [from his loan]. He was maybe the missing link.
‘With Zinchenko and Jesus, I think that was three important players.
‘With that, Martinelli, Saka and also Odegaard, even that he is a little bit more experienced. You know, they are a year older, one more year in that culture, that group, that style of play.
‘And it is all just clicking. It is almost like Liverpool. I don’t know what position they finished before they became champions, but that season they became champions, wasn’t that the season where Van Dijk and Alisson came? More or less.
‘So just two missing links and then “boom!” that completed the jigsaw. That’s just perfect. Maybe it’s a little bit the same here.’
Brentford travel to the Emirates on Saturday having lost 3-0 in the reverse fixture earlier this season and Frank believes the Gunners are the team to beat in the title race.
‘They play with that bit between their teeth, that extra edge and determination,’ he continued.
‘They can smell that they have a chance to win the goal [of the title]. Of course, and I understand that they don’t want to talk about it, they only want to talk about the next game, so they are doing all the right things.
‘It’s just, looking from the outside, you can just see that they [want it]. It’s like Liverpool the year they won their first championship, you could just see it.
‘They are running harder both ways, in the duels they are giving everything, and on top of that they are top footballers. So you can just see they are so eager to win it, and that makes it even more difficult to beat them now.’
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