Sky Sports journalist Michael Bridge is shocked that Mikel Arteta and Edu allowed William Saliba to move on loan to Ligue 1 from Arsenal during the transfer window.

Saliba was allowed to join Marseille on a short-term deal in the summer, having spent last season on loan at OGC Nice.

Indeed, since his signing from Saint-Etienne, Saliba has not actually played a single minute of competitive football for Arsenal.

In his three appearances for Marseille thus far this season, Saliba has yet to be on the losing side, with his club beating both Montpellier and Saint-Etienne in Ligue 1 and drawing with Bordeaux.

By comparison, Mikel Arteta’s Gunners are in disarray, and sit rock-bottom of the Premier League table.

They lost their opening game of the season against Brentford 2-0, were then outclassed by Chelsea in a 2-0 defeat, and then lost 5-0 to Manchester City at the weekend.

And Bridge cannot understand why Saliba was allowed to go to Marseille.

He said: “You’ve got William Saliba playing brilliantly in France. People knock France, but I think maybe people are a little bit disrespectful to France. You’ve got Saliba playing excellent stuff over there and you see Arsenal’s defence at the moment, and you just wonder, ‘is Saliba really worse than what we’re seeing right now?’

"Everything going on with Arsenal, you have to question from the top down to the coaching staff.”