Arsenal will miss Gabriel – he embodies their fundamental change under Mikel Arteta

New York Times

04-04-2025

William Saliba has stepped out alongside Gabriel 115 times for Arsenal in the last three seasons, six times more than any other team-mate.
He will need to wait until next season before he does so again, however, after it was announced on Thursday that the Brazilian requires surgery on a hamstring injury suffered against Fulham on Tuesday.
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Since the centre-back pairing was formed at the start of the 2022-23 season — after Saliba had returned from his third loan spell in France and deemed Premier League-ready — they have been welded together as the granite Mikel Arteta has built his team upon.
This season, no outfield Arsenal players have played more minutes than the duo. Last season, only Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard played more than Gabriel, with Saliba out in front.
It is not a coincidence that the start of Saliba and Gabriel's union was when Arsenal's flatlining trajectory suddenly rocketed.
Neither is it a coincidence that the last time they were separated for a period of time, when Saliba missed the final three months of the season with a back injury sustained in March 2023, Arsenal's title bid collapsed.
They are a far more robust team across the pitch with a deeper squad to lean on than two years ago, but Gabriel's absence still feels like a gut punch as it is the first time Arsenal will have been without him for more than a three-game spell this season.
Someone somewhere has a voodoo doll of Arteta and is plucking each immaculate shred of hair one by one. It is the only explanation for Arsenal's luck with the timing of their injuries this season.
Amid all the disruption, the one bit of solace Arsenal could take is that they had kept Saliba and Gabriel — the bedrock of the best defensive record in the Premier League the last two seasons — intact.
But just as Arsenal got their two best wingers back in Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka and the team was only Kai Havertz away from full strength, Arteta now has to find a new dance partner for Saliba.
As far as specifications go, they only have to have a skillset to cope with Real Madrid's front four of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham. So, being able to waltz, tango, quickstep and jive in equal measure? Got it? Good.
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The loss of Gabriel is compounded by doubts over Ben White, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori in another example of the cluster injuries that have undermined Arteta's back-up plans.
All three players can play at centre-back but Timber is being assessed after coming off with a knee complaint against Fulham, while White picked up a knee injury in training last week and Calafiori is recovering from a knee injury sustained on Italy duty which is expected to take several weeks to recover from.
If Calafiori was there to slot in as the left-sided centre-back it would have felt less grave. Even if one of Timber and White had been able to shuffle inside from right-back — they both played centre-back for Ajax and Brighton respectively — with Saliba moving over to left-centre-back (where he plays for France) it would not have felt as profound.
Instead, Poland international Jakub Kiwior is expected to start next to Saliba after replacing Gabriel on Tuesday for his first Premier League appearance since his start at Craven Cottage in December. That day he did fine for most of the match but he got caught square for Raul Jimenez's goal and even on Tuesday there were a couple of unforced errors that would likely have been punished by better opposition.
Most of his problems tend to come when playing a high line and the pressure that puts him under but it is conceivable that Arsenal will give up more possession against Madrid and deny space in behind, which may suit his game. Last season he also showed that he can raise his level when needed. Kiwior performed so well at left-back during an eight-game spell which saw Arsenal edge past Porto in the Champions League while winning five and drawing one of their league games.
Saliba and Gabriel epitomise the chemistry that is required to forge a great defence, blending to cover weaknesses and amplify strengths.
Yet, losing Gabriel will be seen as the lesser of two evils by many.
He is the more brutish of the two, not as quick nor as elegant as Saliba. Can he clip a ball out from the air, pirouette past a striker and then dribble through a tiny gap without breaking sweat? No, he definitely can't.
But he has developed into a reliable defender at ease with his rugged style. He can be a little clumsy in possession and a little rash in the tackle, but these are imperfections that he has ironed out to the odd crease every few months.
So much so that he has outshone Saliba this season, who has been slightly more error-prone. 'I am not the best at the moment because, for me, this season I have not been so good,' said Saliba in a press conference last month.
'I have to review my season, I have to work on my game. I have to watch especially my partner, Gabriel, who has been so, so good this season.'
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It is a similar dynamic to Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk at Liverpool in which the latter gets the vast majority of the plaudits as he is more stylish. Konate even made a joke of it on Sky Sports before Wednesday's Merseyside derby.
'It's crazy how many Man of the Match (awards) I could get this season,' he said. 'It's very good to play with Virgil because he is a very good player, but sometimes people who watch the game they think it's only Virgil who plays. No, I am playing as well!'
What Gabriel does represent is unmistakable. He is the steel and grit of this Arsenal team, the defender who physically manhandles while Saliba sweeps up behind. He is also the most senior and vocal leader in the back four with his high-pitched commands and shrieks cascading into the stands.
Gabriel embodies the fundamental change in Arsenal under Arteta, from the soft-centred team they were in Arsene Wenger's autumnal years to the solid machine that many teams find impossible to crack.
He is the defensive rock but also the major threat at attacking corners who attacks every delivery like his life depends on it. When he scored his most recent Premier League goal in November, against West Ham, it put him on a total of 17 since his debut in September 2020 — seven more than any other defender in that time.
Arsenal will miss all of that presence.