Arsenal record without William Saliba as Liverpool handed huge boost before title clash

Liverpool has been in the next weekend with for the crucial fixture at the Emirates Stadium.

Mikel Arteta's star defender was given a red card for hauling down Evanilson when the former FC Porto striker was set to run through on goal during the match with Bournemouth. Referee Rob Jones initially issued a yellow card before being sent for a second look by the VAR, Jarred Gillett.

But what is record without Saliba and how much of a difference does he make to the Gunners' chance of winning? He is certainly a top-class center-back and the numbers show that.

In Saliba's first 65 games as an Arsenal player, he won 49 times, picking up eight draws and losing eight times. Arsenal had a win percentage of 75.4 when he featured in that period and in August, he became the fastest Arsenal player of all time to reach 50 victories.

The season before last, with Arsenal in the driving seat for the Premier League title, Saliba's injury setback coincided with the Gunners' collapse. Points were dropped against West Ham United and Southampton before a loss to Manchester City saw men take the title.

"When he plays, we concede few goals, when he doesn’t play, the number increases," Gabriel Jesus admitted to the at the time. "When I got injured, Eddie (Nketiah) replaced me very well. Then we signed Leo (Trossard). We kept the pace.

"But when Saliba got injured, it was complicated. The other defenders are good, but we were playing in a certain way. Look at the stats we concede a lot less with him."

The Frenchman was ever-present for Arsenal’s first 27 games of the 2022/23 season, helping it keep 12 clean sheets. Without him, Arsenal managed just two clean sheets from 11 games.

Last season, Saliba played in every Premier League match for the Gunners with this being his first red card. He also played in every Champions League fixture, including the 3-2 defeat on aggregate to in the quarter-finals.

Liverpool.com says: With Saliba missing, Liverpool will have a greater chance of winning that match, for sure. The Reds have injury troubles of their own, though, with absent at the moment through a hamstring issue. And first, of course, Liverpool needs to get a positive result against Chelsea this weekend at Anfield.