William Saliba has been one of Arsenal’s key players this season (Getty)
Rio Ferdinand believes Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge will be over if William Saliba or Gabriel Jesus suffer an injury.
Mikel Arteta’s side continued to keep pace at the top of the table with an impressive 1-0 victory over Chelsea on Sunday.
Saliba delivered another impressive at the heart of Arsenal’s defence, while Jesus was key for the Gunners in attack, even though he extended his goal drought to nine games in all competitions.
Arsenal are yet to show signs of slowing down in their battle with Manchester City but Ferdinand believes performance levels would drop significantly without Saliba and Jesus in the team.
When it was suggested that Thomas Partey is Arsenal’s most-important player, Ferdinand said on Vibe With Five: ‘I don’t agree, your most important player is Jesus or Saliba.
‘If those players come out of the team, the drop-off from that level is massive.
‘You could play Xhaka in Partey’s position and get through a couple of games, not a problem.
Gabriel Jesus continues to be a focal point in Arsenal’s attack – despite his nine-game goal drought (Getty)
‘But you ain’t going to get the same output from someone who comes in after Jesus or Saliba, you’ve got Nketiah or Holding coming in.
‘I agree the control mainly without the ball, the way they controlled Chelsea was unreal. It shows you the coaching that has gone in, the hard work from the manager and the ability from the players to take it on.
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‘Saliba was immense, he played really, really well. He stood out. Partey made it look easy in that midfield, dominated that midfield.
‘Jesus did everything but put the ball in the back of the net. I just feel he needs to tweak his performance a little bit to be a goal threat in the box, if he can do that with what he’s doing outside, at times he’s covering at left-back, it’s crazy.’
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‘If those players come out of the team, the drop-off from that level is massive.’
