Rio Ferdinand says Arsenal have a £27m player who’s even better than Ibrahima Konate

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Rio Ferdinand has been ranking Premier League defenders, with two Arsenal players coming into conversation.

Without a doubt, the biggest improvement Mikel Arteta has implemented at Arsenal is in the defence.

The partnership of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes is immovable, being one of the best duos in world football. 

Gabriel and Saliba have been described as the best centre-back pairing in the Premier League, an opinion that Rio Ferdinand recently echoed. 

• READ MORE: Rio Ferdinand says Arsenal fans have been doing something ‘crazy’ since Man City draw

Rio Ferdinand says Gabriel Magalhaes is better than Ibrahima Konate

Sometimes, Gabriel is somewhat underrated due to how good his central defensive partner is.

Such is to be expected as Saliba is three years the £27m Brazilian’s junior, but that by no means diminishes the quality Gabriel has in his locker.

In a TikTok for GOAL Global, Ferdinand celebrated Gabriel’s talent, making it clear that he thinks the 27-year-old is better than Liverpool star Ibrahima Konate. 

Ferdinand was asked to pick between Konate and Gabriel, to which he didn’t hesitate to back the Arsenal man.

Things became more difficult for the Manchester United icon, as he was asked to choose between Arsenal’s two centre-backs.

“I prefer the type of player Saliba is, but I think they’re the best partnership, for me,” Ferdinand responded.

Ferdinand once said that Saliba isn’t yet at the level of some Arsenal greats, and the pundit also thinks the Frenchman has some work to do to be better than a current player.

Responding to the question of ‘Saliba or Virgil van Dijk?’, Ferdinand said Van Dijk.

Per the iconic Premier League defender’s opinion, half of Arsenal’s centre-back partnership is better than Liverpool’s, with Gabriel a better option than Konate, but Saliba falling short of Van Dijk.

How Gabriel actually compares to Konate

Saliba says his partnership with Gabriel is missing trophies, which is what Van Dijk has achieved in abundance over his seven-and-a-half years at Liverpool.

Ability-wise, too, Van Dijk is above the rest in the Premier League, but as Ferdinand expressed, Konate isn’t as good as his partner.

Ferdinand thinks Gabriel is better, and the statistics from last season prove that in some ways.

As seen above, Gabriel lost fewer challenges than Konate last term and was far more efficient in blocks, based on a per-90 basis.

The discussion is particularly interesting for Saliba, who holds the true answer to the question, partnering Konate at international level and Gabriel at Arsenal.