Gabriel ready to shine for Arsenal after “a year of learning”

Our two big signings of the 2020 summer window were Gabriel Magalhaes and Thomas Partey, and both of them didn’t manage to play the full season due to injuries and loss of form.

But Gabriel did manage to play about half the season and won a few Player of the Month awards, but he admits that he had problems with communication as well. He told SkySports: “It was a year of learning,”

“Of course, the team had a bad run, but I started well and overall I think it was a good year for me. I learned a lot of things and I’m a more mature player this year. I know the league better as well.”

“I think, more than anything on the pitch, the language was the biggest difficulty for me in terms of adapting,”

“There are a lot of players here who speak French, Portuguese and Spanish but in this country, you have to speak English and that was tough for me.

“My English still isn’t perfect, but it’s definitely a lot better than it was and that’s helping me a lot.”

Going by his last few games, Gabriel is finding it easy to communicate with Ben White, and they seem to be developing into a force to be reckoned with at the back.

We are going to need a top defence today to deal with the threat of Brighton, who have become extremely hard to beat under Graham Potter this season. It should be a very interesting tactical battle indeed.

Bring your A-Game, Gabi!

COYG!