Mikel Arteta moved to defend the performance of Gabriel Magalhaes against Southampton.
The Brazilian wasn’t at his best in his first start since suffering a positive Coronavirus test.
It remains to be seen if he will hold onto his first-team place when Pablo Mari returns to action, while Rob holding has emerged as the first choice alongside the Spaniard in recent weeks.
While Arteta defended his summer signing’s performance on a lack of training, there are doubts over how long he will take to return to 100%, as players like Paulo Dybala of Juventus took months to return to a high level after suffering with COVID-19
Arteta defends Gabriel Magalhaes performance for Arsenal against Southampton on his lack of training in recent weeks 👀👀👀
Could Gabriel be the latest player to struggle to return to 100% after suffering with Covid? 🙄🙄🙄 pic.twitter.com/OpPnzcFtSC
— Just Arsenal News (@JustArsenal) January 24, 2021
Patrick
Why highlights a problem that wasn’t a problem yesterday. Gab was coming back from illness and looked rusty, a deflected home goal was not the problem yesterday and neither was playing Gabriel. He may take a few games but to highlight that as a problem is plain wrong. The goal was not his fault and it was unfortunate not down to inability. He will take time to come back to his best and games will be needed, dont forget he won two player of the months awards, people have very short memories and patience.
While he was unfortunate with the own goal Reggie his three displays prior to contracting Covid were poor for someone who started the season well.I hope he regains his form quickly and we are not faced with yet another mediocre centre back.On that subject, two years ago I highlighted Konsa of Brentford as a CB who we should sign.I watched him for Villa last night and he was excellent and has been all season.He has real pace which is an asset which is missing from all our centre backs unfortun ately .