At the beginning of this season, Mikel Arteta surprisingly replaced Gabriel Magalhaes in his starting XI.
The defender was one of the key players at the club in the previous term and formed a solid partnership at the back alongside William Saliba.
Yet Arteta surprisingly took him out of the team as he tried new players in a different system.
Gabriel was frustrated, and reports circulated that he might leave the club.
As one of the finest defenders in the league in the previous season, he would not struggle to get a new home, but the Brazilian spoke with Arteta and the gaffer persuaded him to stay.
He said, as quoted by Goal:
“It was tough, obviously at the start. I wanted to play and it was very difficult for me but I understood what the coach had to do.
“It is difficult for any player to not be in the team but now I’m back in and I want to keep on working hard to prove my worth. [Arteta] spoke to me and obviously explained the reasons behind the decision.
“Why I should stay – but the most important thing was to remain focused and concentrate – he knew how important I was to the team, so I’m happy to be back and to be able to help the team in every game. I’m happy to be back in the team and hopefully, I can help them moving forward.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Gabriel was one of our best players last season, so it surprised most of us when he could not get into the team at the start of the term.
He is now one of the first names on the team sheet and will want to keep performing well while Jurrien Timber is injured.
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Not an accurate summation of the situation at start of this seson at all. Gabriel was always MA s preferred partner alongside SALIBA.
Yes he missed a mere couple of games but what does that prove?!!
Nothing at all IMO, and far too much nonsense is being spouted and a false narative being CLAIMED by MARTIN about what ACTUALLY happened.
Arteta was clearly trying something different at the start of the season – it looked like a plan to accommodate partey at right back, imo to get an extra midfielder onto the field, and he seemingly wanted to keep white in the team, which meant dropping Gabriel, presumably because white is better on the ball or possibly because his experience at RB would better support partey. I really think he was trying to get as much on-the-ball quality onto the field as possible, but it seemed like the effect on our defence was too much.
Arteta did quickly drop the idea when it was clear it wasn’t working (possibly influenced by timber s injury, but who can really say), but had it worked out, I don’t see how Gabriel would have remained a first choice in the short term – he might have come back in place of white at some point, as saliba has played fullback before. Among other things, the experiment did highlight how important Gabriel is to the side and how partey cannot play as a fullback, inverted or otherwise.
Probably the first hand pick player by the gaffer, just breaking in the most accomplished international team in the world.
Getting rid of the Brazilian at that appointing time make absolutely no sense at all, unless the gaffer was losing a screw or two, which I think not.
Like Pep Guardiola the gaffer was fidgeting with his team that may have come about as a result of overthinking, nothing more.
I don’t understand your first sentence, GS (are you talking about saliba?), but I agree with the rest.
Big Gabi is for me the player that allows saliba to be his best big up to big gabi my first choice cb