Gabriel Magalhaes made his first league start of the season for Arsenal in their 1-0 win over Norwich City and he was one of their best players.
The Brazilian joined the Gunners last summer from Lille and made a bright start to life in North London.
However, he soon struggled for form consistently and he ended the last campaign struggling to displace Pablo Mari from the starting XI when the Spaniard is fit.
This campaign offers him the chance to shine and Ben White can bring out the best in him.
White partnered Mari in Arsenal’s opening league game of the season, but the Englishman tested positive for covid-19 and missed Arsenal’s next two league matches.
They conceded seven goals in both games against Chelsea and Manchester City.
The international break gave him time to recover from the disease and it also helped Gabriel to step up his recovery from injury and the Brazilian partnered White as Arsenal defeated Norwich.
The Daily Mail praised him for his contribution to the game, they wrote:
“After a shocking start to the season that encompassed three successive defeats, Arsenal got their first league win of the campaign as they beat Norwich 1-0 at home.
“While much of the focus at Emirates Stadium was on the new signings, including Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White, the return of a player who joined the club last summer, Gabriel, could also help to push Mikel Arteta’s team up the table.
“The Brazilian centre-back enjoyed an encouraging start to his Arsenal career before suffering a dip in form but he will hope to truly establish himself during his second season in north London.
“An impressive reader of the game, Gabriel is capable of making precisely-timed interceptions and did so one occasion against Norwich when White had been caught out.
“Although he is far from the finished article, the 23-year-old certainly seems a significantly better option than Rob Holding or Pablo Mari.”
Gabi and Rolls Royce can make a great partnership. Gabi can be the one who is the aggressor, and while it is only one game, White can be a good control man with his pace. He is slowly coming into Mustafi early days form, then I can truly call him English Mustafi lol. All jokes aside, if they both establish proper communication between them, then we will see improved defensive performances hopefully. Also White’s sweet long balls will help our attacks, only if they finish though. Real test might be against the hulking forwards of Burnley and I hope what I noticed of White’s ball watching is just nervous jitters and not a trait. Because he has to lead our aggressor, Gabi to nullify threats without lunging into red card tackles or being outjumped in the air.
“far from the finished article”
But Certainly “seems”, better than Holding or Mari?
So clearly, totally, with out doubt a definite maybe 🙂
Talk about damning with faint praise 🙂
I sincerely hope I am wrong, but I do not see Gabriel as a permanent solution at CB.Based on last season, he is slow on the turn and tends to panic whilst under pressure.On a brighter note he has the physical presence to make an impression , and as his English improves communication with his fellow defenders should become better and lead to a more compact unit.As I said I hope he goes on to prove me completely wrong and form a fine partnership with Ben White.It’s some time since we had a reliable spine to the team and let’s hope Ramsdale and our two young centre backs provide the solid foundation we need.
Gaby is certainly one of our best defenders and along with White hopefully they form the core of our defence and with Ramsdale improving and taking charge of the 6 yard area, our defence must only improve with more game time and as the 3 play more games together, we should hopefully see less goals given to the opposition on a platter. But also, one should be careful about injuries and suspensions and for that reason we should have a strong back up and hence Holding, Mari and Chambers must improvise in their games. Luckily Tomiyasu can fill in for either Gaby or White since he can also play CB and than Cedric can play as RB.
Gabi-White pairing looks to complemante each other. Gabi IS bringing physicality and BW intelligence and ball control….And they are young,so ,therfore, deemed to have a bright futur along KT and the japnese lad ( hopefully)….We have to admit that Arteta /Edu are having a coherent project based on youth but the downside is that it is déjà vu under Wenger and it didn’t succed…
He was our best cb last season, especially it being his first in the pl. he needs the other players around him to do there job or in trying to cover for them that when mistakes happen. We also need the manager to stop chopping and changing up the team. The players need consistency and need to get a regular routine and flow playing together. On another note we will never win anything if Aubameyang and Lacazette do not put the ball in the back of the net. We all can see the striker situation is dire right now and all of those wasted opportunities last season would have had us high up the table if the strikers had converted. I wouldn’t be so bad if occasionally players missed sitters but It seems every game our attackers squander incredible situations to win us games. Someone somewhere must of done the analysis of chances that were not converted, points in those games and where we could have placed if they were taken. I’m off to YouTube to take a look…
Did u find any thing on Youtube Pco?
Gabi never struggled. Arteta ignored him to play Mari his home boy to justify the purchase of reject Mari. Holding was also played ahead of Gabi to appease him (Holding) on the decision made not to release him
Gabi is actually a very good player who unfortunately is playing under a very questionable coach