Arsenal earned an important 1-0 win away to Chelsea in the Premier League yesterday afternoon, and Fabrizio Romano has picked out the players he felt were most impressive in the game.
Writing in his exclusive column for CaughtOffside’s Substack, Romano singled out the back four as being key for the Gunners as they picked up an impressive result at Stamford Bridge.
Gabriel Magalhaes got forward from defence to score the winning goal for Arsenal, but Romano singled out young French centre-back William Saliba as being “world class” already.
The Italian journalist was also full of praise for Ben White and Oleksandr Zinchenko for the level they performed at, and it’s certainly true that this looks like the best back four Arsenal have had for many years.
The north London giants used to boast legendary players like Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole in their defence, but things went downhill for them when they signed the likes of David Luiz and Sokratis Papastathopoulos in recent years.
Arsenal look like title contenders again now, and Romano has made it clear he thinks it’s their back four that’s making the difference.
“This was a very impressive win for Arsenal. They have a fantastic defence, really. Saliba is world class player, Gabriel Magalhaes is doing fantastic and they trusted both of them during the whole summer,” Romano said.
Gabriel’s close-range finish from Bukayo Saka’s inswinging corner in the second half was enough to secure a well-deserved and vital win at Stamford Bridge.
It was a full-blooded London derby, and we were the dominant side throughout the afternoon, and could have won by a bigger margin in the end.
The win takes us back to the top of the table, and made it three consecutive league wins away to Chelsea for the first time since the 1970s.
