A fan online seems to think they have pinpointed the exact moment Arsenal’s title challenge was doomed after seeing footage of William Saliba initially hurting his back.
How did William Saliba get injured?
The 22-year-old French centre-back had started all 27 of the Gunner’s Premier League games up until mid-March and his fine performances helped them sit at the top of the table.
Indeed, up to that point, Arsenal had lost just three league matches, drawing three others and winning the rest. His last appearance in the top flight, however, came in a 3-0 away win over Fulham.
Just days later, Saliba was asked to start against Sporting Lisbon in the Europa League but lasted just 21 minutes before coming off with an injury as Mikel Arteta and co were later knocked out of the competition on penalties.
In the 11 Premier League games after that fitness setback, Arsenal won just five more times, drawing three marches and losing three more. This ultimately was enough for Manchester City to overtake them and ultimately win the title race.
Clearly, Saliba’s absence played a huge part in the North London outfit dropping so many points in the run-in, so it’s easy to look at though defeat against Sporting as the moment things all went wrong.
However, after seeing footage shared on Twitter, fans have come up with a theory that he actually suffered his back injury in the previous game against Fulham after colliding with goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
As you can see, the £40k-per-week defender lands awkwardly and it was ultimately a “muscle injury in his lower back” that forced him off early in the very next game.
In hindsight, you can’t help but wonder if things could have turned out differently had Arteta and the medical team noted this possible injury and not played him in Europe just four days later.
Fans certainly seemed to think this collision against Fulham was the moment their title chances suffered a huge blow – one they would never recover from. Here are some of the best reactions on Twitter.
Some even blamed Ramsdale…