The PFA have announced their six nominees for the 2025/26 Player of the Year award.
Three Arsenal players have been nominated, but there is one key name missing from the list.
David Raya, Declan Rice and Gabriel Magalhaes have all been recognised, joining Bruno Fernandes, Rayan Cherki and Erling Haaland on the shortlist.
No serious arguments are to be had against any of the nominated players — all inclusions are thoroughly deserved.
But William Saliba has not been nominated. And that is going to bother fans of the Gunners.
START, BENCH, SELL: Tony Adams, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes…
PICK IN THE COMMENTS!!!
The Frenchman has arguably been Arsenal’s most consistent performer, playing 50 games across all competitions this season, including the full 120 minutes of the Champions League final against PSG.
His absence was felt on the occasions he was unavailable — Arsenal dropped points in a 1-1 draw against ten-man Chelsea and lost to Aston Villa during a spell when Saliba was missing through injury.
The correlation between his fitness and Arsenal’s form is no coincidence.
William Saliba continues to be overlooked as PFA Player of the Year nominees confirmed
There is something almost paradoxical about Saliba’s persistent lack of recognition.
He is so consistently excellent, so quietly dominant, that people have simply become numbed to it. The standards he sets have been normalised to the point where they no longer register as remarkable.
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Gabriel has received enormous plaudits this season, and rightly so. He is the vocal and aerial leader in the backline and has been extraordinary in both boxes.
But Saliba is the better player. He is the one who sets the tone on a technical level, who leads the build-up play, who makes everything look so effortless that it barely seems worth mentioning.
In a strange way, he’s almost Arsenal’s equivalent of Rodri. The tempo, the probing passes, the constant little step-ups to draw a press, the high-percentage forward passing. So many of his actions are subtle and unremarked upon, and yet they are the foundation to Arsenal’s entire build-up play.
Football players simply tend to play better football when William Saliba is alongside them.
Thankfully, Didier Deschamps has confirmed Saliba is fit for the World Cup, and he was an unused substitute in the 2-1 friendly defeat by Ivory Coast.
The best and most valuable defender in the world, overlooked for a PFA award. It is, frankly, baffling.
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