On Monday night, football fans on the internet ripped into William Saliba for sloppily giving away a penalty in France’s 2-1 win over Belgium. 

Over the last two years, the Arsenal star has been one of the best defenders in the Premier League. But even Gunners fans thought he put on a “awful display.” 

The first half saw Saliba trip and crash into Lois Openda. However, Youri Tielemans missed the penalty kick in the Nations League match in Brussels.

The 23-year-old lost his balance and couldn’t get to the ball. The judge gave him a yellow card, but fans online gave him a red card instead.

One fan on X, which used to be Twitter, wrote, “Awful display.”

One Chelsea fan wrote, “I’ve seen enough. Don’t ever compare Saliba to (Levi) Cowill again.”

Someone else said, “William Saliba knows how to look busy on the football field.” People who don’t work in statistics love it, but I can see through it. 

It’s not even close to being top. He’s more like Johnny Evans than Van Dijk or Ruben Dias. On his best day, he got a 6/10. Too much.’

A lot of Arsenal fans wanted to use the mistake as a warning to Real Madrid, who are said to be in the market for him this summer.

Someone said, “I hope Real Madrid is watching.” William Saliba isn’t as great as people say he is, especially when Gabriel isn’t with him.

“Arsenal fans have been way too high on him; you really want Cristian Romero of Tottenham.”

“Certainly.” Not even close to being good enough for Real Madrid. Because of the way they play, it only looks good for Arsenal. Someone else wrote, “Madrid should surely go after (Micky) van de Ven instead,” also leading Los Blancos toward the Spurs defense. 

Some people, though, couldn’t believe how badly one of the Premier League’s most reliable center-backs was being treated.  

“So, out of all the great defensive work he’s been doing, you picked one bad game to rule him out as a possible Real Madrid target?” “It’s so unfair,” one person said. 

“Ha ha ha ha ha.” “He makes one bad tackle, and it looks like he’s not all that great,” wrote someone else. 

Saliba signed a new deal last year that keeps him at the Emirates Stadium until June 2027.

Because of this, Arsenal is well-prepared to handle any unwanted interest in their star center back, who played in all 38 of their Premier League games last year.

It’s said that they don’t care that Madrid wants the French international.