Arsenal centre-back Gabriel made his first appearance of the season in the 1-0 win over Norwich City at the weekend.
The Brazilian missed the start of the campaign due to a knee injury but he didn’t take that much time to get up to speed as the Gunners secured their first clean sheet in the league this season.
Gabriel did his defensive work with a minimum of fuss and supporters on Twitter think that the team benefited massively from his inclusion in the starting eleven:
most underrated CB in the league
— COYG (@Auba_stan) September 12, 2021
I would back him to get into most teams
— C h r i s t i a n 🇨🇩 🇿🇦 (@Ben_Jnr_) September 12, 2021
Yep, Gabriel is so good man, feels me with so much more confidence seeing him at the back over anyone else.
— now.arsenal (@now_arsenaI) September 12, 2021
if Gabriel was in Leicester or BVB, the media would be hyping him as one of the best CBs in the world right now
Arsenal Tax
— Parranoid Android (@TheGoalFather10) September 12, 2021
Gabriel is fantastic & still maturing. Makes some silly mistakes but experience will help to iron those out.
White seems like a ball-playing solid addition but too early to say.
Hope the Saliba mystery will be solved as he seems like quality & we need more than 2 quality CBs— Tim Dobisz (@TDobisz) September 12, 2021
Gabriel covers Ben White really really well
— Radu (@AlexRadu__) September 12, 2021
Gabriel is a solid wall at the back, and Ben has such a brilliant progressive passing ability, and unreal comfort on the ball.
They’ll be such a strong pairing
— Nick Arsenal (@NickArsenal4) September 12, 2021
Gabriel and White actually looked quite good – date I say – almost frightening..
— mazzerooni 🔴⚪️🇨🇾🇬🇧 (@mazzerooni) September 12, 2021
IMO best player yesterday stop so many plays.. He’s the strong imposing player while White is the calm and cool player so yes.. they compliment each other( well should too early to say)
— Yurrrrr (@duh_realist98) September 12, 2021
The 23-year-old looked strong in the air and he looks to have developed an understanding with new centre-back partner Ben White already which is a very good sign.
Some caution is needed, though. Doing it against a team like Norwich is all well and good, but there are bigger tests coming up where we will find what Gabriel, and White for that matter, are really capable of.