Arsenal made it two Premier League wins-in-a-row as the Gunners claimed three points against Burnley, but the result could have been a lot different without Gabriel Magalhaes.
The Brazilian centre-back retained his position in the defence as Mikel Arteta named an unchanged back-four to face the Clarets. Gabriel looked assured against Norwich City last week, and the former Lille star was again a rock against Burnley.
Sean Dyche’s side posed much more of a threat to Arsenal than Norwich last week. The Premier League side almost won a penalty after a mistake from Ben White led to Aaron Ramsdale fouling Matej Vydra inside the area. But VAR ruled out the penalty.
Indeed, it was a shift and a half from Gabriel, who dominated the defence for Arsenal and caused Burnley a lot of problems. The Gunners are yet to concede a goal with the 23-year-old starting this season, who Edu signed in 2020.
With Arteta’s side facing Tottenham next week, keeping Gabriel fit will be key to Arsenal’s hopes of finishing high in the Premier League this season, and his performance against Burnley more than reassured fans.
Supporters on social media loved what they saw from Gabriel against Burnley. With some fans even comparing the defender to Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk, who the Reds signed for £75m in 2017.
Here’s what some supporters had to say on Twitter about Gabriel’s performance on Saturday on Twitter…
https://twitter.com/carltoop16/status/1439256623625736207
https://twitter.com/YonkoAbbz/status/1439469253183291394
https://twitter.com/simonpidakala/status/1439414422733148165
https://twitter.com/BlackMagicGP/status/1439242137456021504
https://twitter.com/projectksl/status/1439393803048157184
https://twitter.com/HighburyJoe/status/1439321839919058947
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