He is a proper old school defender. Love him and for me he has done enough to be first choice. All hail the brilliant Brazilian.
He's very no nonsense, doesn't take many risks, he does basic defending really well and will clear it or put it out rather than try something fancy. I really like him. Seems a solid defender so far with a real bite to him. He also looks good alongside either Kosc or Mert which is great as Vermaelen could only play with mert. I'm happy with our three CB options and Chambers as fourth choice isn't the end of the world either.
Proper Killer. Such a good signing. Gonna be a top CB, and I look forward to seeing his development continue.
£11.2 Million for Gabriel seems like a great bit of business. In fact when you look at our back four/five.. Bellerin - Free Monreal - £8.3m Mertesacker - £8m Koscieleny - £10m. and Peter Cech £11m. In an era when United pay £35 Million for Shaw and Chelsea offer £30m+ for Stones we still seem to make some great signings both terms of quality and value.
I have to say he has been absolutely incredible for us. Even when he first stepped onto the scene in an Arsenal shirt, he showed that he possessed the qualities to be a great defender for us. Agile, comfortable in bringing the ball out from the back, excellent tackler and knows how to defend properly. He is actually deceptively quite strong despite his small frame. I really rate him.
That is crazy, especially when you add Debuchy for £12m and you've got three hugely experienced internationals and some top, top youngsters in our defence for the same as Liverpool paid for Lovren (£20m) and Sakho (£18m)!
A lot were saying that was 8m wasted on Monreal at the time too so it's nice to prove people wrong. It's still early days with Gabriel but the brief glimpse we've seen is incredibly encouraging. Obviously if I had to gripe about anything it'd be that when he got red carded for his "foul" on Costa it wasn't for absolutely mullering that c*nt. Ah well, you can't have everything.
Yeah but why stop there, the way he looks, I'd have loved to see him destroying Costa then going on a rampage and ripping Jose's head off! (give him something to moan about!)
He's an ugly **** too. That helps being a CB. We haven't had a proper munter at the back since Keown.
Apparently he is back for the Everton game. Could be an epic battle between the hulks that are Gabriel and lukaku!
I doubt any of our players could out-muscle Lukaku, let alone the majority of the Prem players. But I doubt he'd tangle with his physically but use his intelligence and intercepting ability. Lukaku is a proper physical beast.
I love his distribution of the ball! He is not afraid to pass it forward nor a pass which is more than 10meters away. He is great!
Did anybody see Gabriel fist pump the air after making a challenge towards the end? Love it when a defender celebrates a tackle like a goal!
A great "close up| video about Gabriel on arsenal tv. http://player.arsenal.com/features/video/6858/close-up-gabriel
