Arsenal legend Martin Keown believes that it won’t be long before Arsene Wenger opts for a consistent centre-back partnership of Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel over Per Mertesacker.
Keown told the Daily Mail how impressed he was with Gabriel’s performance on Monday night against Bournemouth and that at some point he will be ‘first choice’.
I keep saying – and no one seems to be listening – that Gabriel is a fantastic player. I have no doubt he will be first choice along side Koscielny at some point.
He made a couple of unbelievable challenges against Bournemouth, as well scoring an important goal – all this after being sat on the bench for so long. For me, that’s highly impressive.
What he needs to do is bring the same sense of calmness and confidence as Mertesacker does.
Wenger really likes this, but Gabriel is definitely putting pressure on the German – and you only get the love from Wenger for so long.
Gabriel scored and put in a solid performance alongside Koscielny but Keown believes that Mertesacker gets the edge through his ‘calmness and confidence’ that one day, the Brazilian must have.
Arsenal sit top of the Premier League table on goal difference going into the New Year, with Gabriel only featuring eight times so far.
It’s not clear whether he will feature against Newcastle on Saturday yet, but after Monday’s performance, he’ll have given Arsene Wenger something to think about.
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