I starred in Prem's best ever defence – William Saliba is not in my top three defenders

Former defender has controversially left out from his top three defenders in the .

Gallas, who played 28 games for when they conceded a record low 15 goals in the 2004/05 season, argued the France international has been making "too many mistakes recently" and named three other centre-backs ahead of him. Saliba, 23, has been a key player for manager since returning from a loan spell at Marseille in 2022, after being signed for £27million three years earlier.

His absence is expected to be felt in today's match against Liverpool in last weekend's disappointing 2-0 loss to Bournemouth. Despite helping the Gunners challenge for the league title for two consecutive seasons and being considered by many as one of the best centre-backs in the division alongside Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk, neither made it in Gallas' top three.

Instead, Gallas chose both of their centre-back partners and one of Manchester City's defenders. "I have to put Gabriel [Magalhaes] from Arsenal," the Frenchman told . "I have to put him in my top three centre-backs at this moment in time because he scores some very important goals for Arsenal as well as being an excellent defender.

"I will put Ibrahima Konate in my top three, too. He's been excellent for Liverpool this season. And the last one, I would have liked to put Saliba, but he's been making too many mistakes recently.

"He isn't playing his best football right now, so I can't say that he is one of the best three centre-backs after eight games in the Premier League. I'm going to have to go with Josko Gvardiol. I know that he plays most of his games at left back, but he's a centre-back really, and I think he's an excellent player."

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Intriguingly, Gallas went on to name a different defender entirely as the player he enjoys watching the most out of all of the Premier League's talent. He continued: "I will always choose a defender when looking at players that I want to watch or would pay money to watch.

"At the moment, the man I would like to see is John Stones. I like to watch him, how he plays. His desire, to win, to score. It's not the first time he scored a last-minute goal for his team.

"He's a centre-back, but he can play in the middle. He's not afraid to play a part in the offensive game. There's a lot of rotation in that Man City squad, when he plays, he's always reliable.

"He always gives you a good performance and, sometimes, we know that is not easy to play one game and then be on the bench for two or three games. Some players need to play every game to feel good. John Stones, it doesn't matter when he's in the starting 11. His performance is always good. I like him."