{"id":533569,"date":"2026-04-16T05:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/533569\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T05:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:45:11","slug":"chris-sutton-says-one-arsenal-player-looks-unrecognisable-after-watching-him-vs-sporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/533569\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Sutton says one Arsenal player looks unrecognisable after watching him vs Sporting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>   <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=arsenalinsider.com \" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arsenalinsider.com\/wp-content\/themes\/grv-media\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> Add as preferred source on Google <\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>Arsenal held firm to battle their way into the final four of the Champions League and set up a clash with Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>In what could be the battle of defensive minds, the Gunners will meet Diego Simeone\u2019s side as they attempt to book their place in the final.<\/p>\n<p>The clash against Sporting Lisbon tonight wasn\u2019t exactly nervy but it wasn\u2019t overly comfortable either.<\/p>\n<p>To win the Champions League, Arsenal will need all their best players fulfilling their potential but according to Chris Sutton, one star man is not looking the same.<\/p>\n<p>          Simple question: How do Arsenal win the Champions League from here? <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">Through to the semi-finals, but the performance was not good enough\u2026<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2204222655-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"The UEFA Champions League trophy is displayed on a plinth at\" class=\"wp-image-128538\" \/>Photo by Fabrizio Carabelli\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images       Chris Sutton claims William Saliba is not as good as he once was <\/p>\n<p>Any Arsenal fan will tell you how good William Saliba has been since he got his big chance under Mikel Arteta.<\/p>\n<p>The French international has been the heartbeat of the defence and once again tonight, he ensured Sporting couldn\u2019t get that crucial goal.<\/p>\n<p>However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arsenalinsider.com\/tag\/chris-sutton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Sutton<\/a> believes Saliba has not looked the same.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWilliam Saliba, since he got into the team, he has been a rock at the back, but he does not look the player he once was,\u201d Sutton commented for the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the final third Arsenal were massively disappointing. On the odd occasion, Noni Madueke has not been confident enough to go around Maxi Araujo. Martinelli has had one or two crosses, but it is more to do with their combination play. It should be like clockwork.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>William Saliba criticism is harsh<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a fair enough point this from Sutton in that, yes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arsenalinsider.com\/tag\/william-saliba\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saliba<\/a> hasn\u2019t quite looked the rock he once was.<\/p>\n<p>However, Arsenal needed to just not concede tonight and they did just that, with Saliba once again crucial in preventing Sporting doing anything of note.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"724\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2270947470-1024x724.jpg\" alt=\"Arsenal FC v Sporting Clube de Portugal - UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 Quarter-Final Second Leg\" \/>Photo by Rob Newell \u2013 CameraSport via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Saliba has been and continues to be Arsenal\u2019s best defender and while the partnership with Gabriel is brilliant, it is the Frenchman who oozes class.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, Arsenal and Saliba got the job done tonight and another clean-sheet sees the Gunners into the semi-final.<\/p>\n<p>As they say in football, it\u2019s job done.<\/p>\n<p>Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Receive a digest of our best Arsenal content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add as preferred source on Google Arsenal held firm to battle their way into the final four of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[18666,218,101,56,54,55,8698],"class_list":{"0":"post-533569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-chris-sutton","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom","14":"tag-william-saliba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}