Wenger praises Gabriel’s debut – and Giroud was okay too!

Arsene Wenger had to give our new defender Gabriel Paulista his Arsenal debut sometime, despite his lack of English-speaking skills, and it was a very brave decision to introduce the Brazilian on a day when only Laurent Koscielny was the lone survivor from the back four that faced Leicester, but Le Prof was more than pleased with his opening performance.

Wenger said after the game: “It was interesting to observe Gabriel today because he played his first game in a cup game that we absolutely had to win. He has shown three important qualities – great concentration levels, great urgency to defend and good pace, especially on the recovery tackle he made in the box.

“On the other hand, he played a little bit with the handbrake on because he did not want to make a mistake. From what I’ve seen there’s a lot to come from him because technically he is good at passing as well.”

Gabriel can only improve as his English improves and he begins to understand his team-mates style of football, so I think we can all congratulate Wenger on another astute acquisition, but we all also have to admit that Olivier Giroud is starting to look like a really top-class striker as well. His two goals were very well-taken and he looks twice as confident as he did before his enforced break through injury.

Wenger couldn’t avoid praising the French striker in his post-match conference: “I believe that he is a different player today than the guy who arrived here for two reasons. One, he understands what top-level football demands, works with a great concentration in training and he has improved tremendously on his mobility, his technical quality and of course his body is very strong. He uses it very well.”

Last year he seemed to be using his body more in his pre-game hotel training than he did on the pitch (lol) but he certainly seems to have got his act together in this campaign and seems to be scoring just as much on the pitch as he did in the hotel bedrooms! Long may this continue!

Onwards and upwards Gooners!

Tags allowed Gabriel Giroud Wenger

19 Comments

  1. Once Gabriel is nice and settled I would like to pot him on Costa…..Gabriel certainly does not look like he is the type to get bullied

    1. Seriously? How could you think so when the yellow card he got was one that was NECESSARY to avoid the opponent scoring and bringing them back into the game

    1. Mr Hafiz, I think its time that you went to your own club’s (Chelsea?) page rather than at our beloved Arsenal’s. There’s not a single thing I see you supporting Arsenal. Why bother visit this page at all????

  2. Good to have choices at CB again…Mert, Kos, Gab, Chamb even Deb & Monreal…Now for Gabriel to make Mert and Kos challenge for 1st team place, the way Ospina did to Scezny…

  3. oh and good positional play and awareness from OG for both goals….1st goal was well workt and 2nd goal was class, also liked Sanchez awareness from the corner, really caught Middlesbrough off guard…

  4. i think that we no longer need to sell our best players ,arsenal are once again an attractive destination for any top class player,who wouldn,t want to play with ozil,carzorla,sanchez,rosicky,walcott and co,sorry i might have forgotten someone i couldn,t name them all and someone will probably disagree with the fact that i named walcott but there you go!!

  5. I couldn’t believe that it was Giroud that I watched yesterday. A finish like the second goal yesterday very often, and we will be up there. Yesterday he told himself that he is a striker whose main job is to score goals and and not primarily holding up plays. Imagine the shot he fired that was parried which Sanchez side-netted the rebounce, eh a better version of Giroud. Note, Boro were no sh*ts only that our boys were determined to win. Can’t try this every match?

  6. That’s funny, his main goal is to contribute to the team. So many think it is the (strikers) job to score goals only. Sorry he is a target who also scores goals. I could go into what a target is but what’s the point.

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