August 21st 2023.
Mikel Arteta has put to rest any speculation that Gabriel Magalhaes could be leaving Arsenal after the Brazilian was surprisingly benched for the second week running.
In Arsenal's 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest, Ben White was preferred at centre-back and Thomas Partey lined up at right-back. This left many fans expecting Gabriel to return to the starting line-up against Crystal Palace, particularly with Timber now injured with an ACL injury.
However, Takehiro Tomiyasu was brought into the back four with the rest of the defence unchanged. Gabriel did make a brief appearance at Selhurst Park after Tomiyasu was sent off, and put in an impressive defensive performance to help Arsenal hold on to their 1-0 win.
When asked if potential interest from Saudi Arabia had influenced his non-selection, Arteta responded: 'No, nothing at all. It's about the games we were expecting, that I was expecting, and how I wanted to defend and attack and what I believed was the best thing.'
He went on to assure that Gabriel has a big role to play at the club, despite his sudden drop down the pecking order. The 25-year-old had started the previous 73 Premier League matches in a row prior to the match against Forest, and had only missed nine minutes of action last season.
Reflecting on the win over Palace, Arteta commented: 'I love to win like this, the way we played the first half against a team which is so difficult in open play, but we dominated the game and we conceded nothing. After scoring the goal there was more spaces, but we had to play with 10 men and we didn't concede with 10 men so I am happy with the team in how they responded in the game.'
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