Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta feels defender Gabriel Magalhaes is ‘still struggling’ a little with the English language despite his strong displays.
The Gunners picked up a point on Saturday afternoon as they drew 0-0 away at Brighton and Hove Albion.
That’s three clean sheets in the last four Premier League games for Arsenal, with Arteta enjoying a new-found defensive stability.
Gabriel and White forming strong partnership
Summer signing Ben White was always going to be a starter, and fans were hoping Gabriel would join him.
The Brazilian showed promise in the Premier League last season having arrived from Lille in the summer of 2020.
Arteta has sometimes gone with Pablo Mari as his left-sided centre back, but it’s certainly Gabriel’s job to lose now.
White and Gabriel have worked in tandem brilliantly, conceding just one goal since starting together for Arsenal.
Gabriel still has one problem at Arsenal
Arteta has now admitted to Football.London that Gabriel is still struggling with English even if his partnership with White has ‘good chemistry’.
Gabriel is the only predominant Portuguese speaker in the Arsenal back line. Aaron Ramsdale, Kieran Tierney and White all speak English, so Gabriel’s communication maybe isn’t at 100% right now.
Arteta is pleased that Gabriel still looks ‘terrific’ despite that issue, and hopefully Gabriel gets a little more comfortable with English the longer he is with Arsenal.
“Yes, because they never played together, because Gabi is still struggling a little bit with the language, because they didn’t have any time to work together in pre-season either,” said Arteta.
“But they’re getting a really good connection. Good chemistry. I think their qualities match and complement each other really, really well and I think both of them today were terrific,” he added.
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