Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba have built one of the Premier League\u2019s strongest centre-back pairings in recent years. Arsenal have conceded only five league goals this season, with the duo\u2019s consistency helping Mikel Arteta\u2019s side open up a four-point lead at the top. Many consider them the best defensive partnership in the division as the Gunners push for their first title since 2004 \u2014 but not everyone agrees.<\/p>\n
Speaking to football.london via Football Odds, former midfielder Sandro was asked whether Tottenham\u2019s Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven form the league\u2019s top pairing. He believes they do, praising Romero\u2019s leadership and Van de Ven\u2019s pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so \u2014 for me, they\u2019re the best defensive partnership in the Premier League. Van de Ven\u2019s quality and speed stand out,\u201d Sandro said. \u201cYes, he made an error against Chelsea, but everyone makes mistakes. When you weigh them up against all the good he brings, he\u2019s fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also lauded Romero\u2019s mentality: \u201cRomero\u2019s leadership is unbelievable. You can tell by how he controls the game, how he speaks to referees and midfielders. I love him \u2014 a real leader. He\u2019s also getting better at avoiding the unnecessary yellow and red cards. He\u2019ll always go hard for the ball, but he\u2019s calmer now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandro\u2019s stance is the opposite of Arsenal icon Martin Keown, who previously declared Magalhaes and Saliba the best centre-back duo in Europe. \u201cGabriel and Saliba are Europe\u2019s top partnership \u2014 aggressive and dominant,\u201d he told TNT Sports in 2024.<\/p>\n
Former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand has echoed that view. \u201cI think they\u2019re the best pairing in Europe,\u201d he said on his YouTube channel, praising their perfectly balanced styles.<\/p>\n
Arsenal and Spurs will soon get the chance to settle the debate on the pitch when they meet in their first game after the international break on Sunday, November 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba have built one of the Premier League\u2019s strongest centre-back pairings in recent years. Arsenal have conceded only five league goals this season, with the duo\u2019s consistency helping Mikel Arteta\u2019s side open up a four-point lead at the top. Many consider them the best defensive partnership in the division as the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":54561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1_Leeds-United-v-Tottenham-Hotspur-Premier-League.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54562,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54560\/revisions\/54562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}