William Saliba ban may force Mikel Arteta to repeat costly Arsenal back-up plan at Anfield | Football | Sport | Express.co.uk

Search Arsenal star William Saliba will be suspended for his side's trip to Anfield. Link copied Bookmark

The France international was shown a straight red card, following VAR intervention, during the Gunners' 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday after being adjudged to have denied a goal-scoring opportunity by bringing Evanilson down as he looked to race onto a loose pass from Leandro Trossard.

Saliba has been the rock at the heart of Arsenal's defence for the past few seasons, and his absence against Liverpool is sure to be felt.

The England international spent a season alongside Gabriel and, despite Riccardo Calafiori, Jakub Kiwior and Jurrien Timber being capable of filling the role too, he looks the likeliest candidate to fill the void left by Saliba.

However, despite White being comfortable centrally and already having the foundations of a partnership with Gabriel, the prospect of shifting the ex-Brighton star out of right-back does have a significant downside.

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The partnership struggled with the free-flowing nature of Liverpool's attack, being dragged into uncomfortable areas by the movement of Jota which opened up heaps of space for Jurgen Klopp's wingers to drive into.

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White hasn't forgotten about how Jota caused Arsenal heaps of problems that evening, recently naming the playmaker as one of his trickiest opponents when speaking to Sky Sports. He said: "Jota, really good. When you play against him, you don't realise how quick he is, strong, he's obviously technically really, really good."

The defender will have learned plenty from that drubbing at the hands of Liverpool, and he will be keen to right the wrongs of that performance alongside Gabriel if deployed at centre-back by his manager.

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