Watford captain Troy Deeney says he received an apology from Gabriel after the Arsenal defender’s dangerous two-footed tackle left him requiring treatment during yesterday’s FA Cup quarter-final.
The unsightly lunge was deemed within the rules of the game by referee Andre Marriner only for television replays to highlight how fortunate the Brazilian was to stay on the field and how lucky the striker was to avoid serious injury.
Speaking after his side’s 2-1 win at the Emirates, Deeney, who escaped serious injury, said:
“I could have gone through him as well and I tried my best to keep the studs down, and [remain to] the letter of the law, but he come over the top.
“I don’t think he was intentionally going to do me but, fair play, he came and apologised.
“I was just a bit frustrated at the initial moment because they are the ones that can break legs.
“Thankfully I am a big lad and I rode the tackle. We are men at the end of the day. We shake hands and carry on until the next game. Crack on.”
In his post-game press conference, Arsene Wenger sided with his player.
“It didn’t look [like a red card to me], I have to see it again. He won the ball. It looked to me like Deeney was [off the ground] as well. Gabriel was first to the ball. That’s how it looked. If his feet were off the ground then I will have to look at it again.”
Arseblog News suspects that the boss may well be having a word with Gabriel this morning having watched the challenge again. Had it happened in the Champions League he’d have been sent off for sure.
I was looking at Marriner as they both went in and said to the guys around me “can’t have been a red, ref was literally staring right at them.” Then we pulled up a replay at halftime, and, boy, were Andre and I wrong. Very lucky to have stayed on and he’s been lucky in a few matches so far. He needs to sort himself out, too hot-headed too often.
What was he even doing there in the first place? A challenge deep in the opponents half is like begging for a counter attack.
Hot-headedness sums it up pretty well: too many risky challenges, caught out of position too often, impulsive therefore unsuccessful and incredibly dangerous clearances and passes.
Yeah I don’t really trust him, he’s got crazy eyes, looks like he’s panicking half the time.
He is not gonna be able to handle messi and neymar anyway so just let chambers play along side bfg.
Fair fucks to Deeney for not being a cunt about it.
If he rolled around on the floor screaming like a massive pussy Gabriel would of been fucking toast.
Nice to see a player with a bit of stones, happy to go toe to toe with an opponent and not moan to the referee when they come off second best.
Toe to toe is exactly it. Put Gabriel standing in that pictur above and its Troy deeney who makes the reckless challenge..
They both lunged and Gabriel was a split second behind in going to ground.
It was a 50/50 ball. Gabriel took ball not man. Not a huge deal.
The second “foul” came after a Watford attacker quite clearly barged Gabriel whilst in the air.
He looked so good as a bit part player the first few months. Now he looks a liability. I’ll feel a lot more comfortable once Per & Kos are back together
Reading deenys quote there all that was going through my mind was “top lad”
He could have carried on like a spaz, the Watford players could have surrounded the ref but no, crack on as he said.
Well played, too rare these days
Gabriel trying so hard to be the next Cygan
Well, he is worse in the air.
Dont forget Djorou or Luzhny
What was wrong with Luzhny?!
Seems Gabriel loves a whole-hearted challenge…which is why his dance with Ighalo on the 6-yard line was all the more baffling
He was doing the samba
Thank fuck gabs wasn’t sent off, would’ve been a perfect excuse for wenger and co.
Going down to 10 men may well have suited us… Forced us to Hit an inferior team on the counter
Once again We concede a goal from a ball coming into the 6yard (ish) area with Gabriel the chief culprit. Why does he not learn. That’s at least 4 this season now and three quite recently that he should have dealt with but failed to get in between the striker and the ball. We need someone in there to just twat it and get it out. English or poor English, it’s just basic defending. There were literally two men in the box and we defended like we were outnumbered.
Gabriel has so much promise. If only he could just calm down and anticipate the game play rather than use his gang ho attitude everytime he plays he may well be a good defender. If only he could be enthusisatic in learning english as he is in tackling, it would be nice.
Remember when Koscielny first started? I was not convinced at all. Six years later he’s one of the best centre-backs in the game. Hopefully don’t have to wait that long for Gabriel…
A comparison I’ve made before and I think it is valid – he’s also had a very rapid rise to prominence. He’s got a good pair of first choice CBs to learn from and time on his side but he really does need to curb this rashness (and learn English) because otherwise he has a pretty promising skillset.
He’s so young. It will come with experience. I still like him very much as a prospect, as he should be considered. It’s part of the liability of securing a promising talent for your third-choice CB. The problem with Gabriel against Watford, and a few other matches though were more so that his problem was compounded by the whole first team just basically failing to put any sort of cohesive 90 minutes in the last few months.
He could just as easily go the Vermaelen way.
Vermaelen way in the first year was goals after goals.
He worries me at times
Can anyone else give an explanation to why the hell we are unable to put the ball in the net. There’s some mental block there this year, potentially more so than previous years – our chance conversion feels way down (yet to read an up to date by the numbers on our season). Worse, we manage to find new and innovative ways to kick ourselves in the nuts year on year. Lets be frank, the manager isn’t leaving this summer, so we will have another year until le prof goes. What can the team do to improve ourselves in line/… Read more »
How about the senior players hold a meeting to discuss where they are going wrong. Oh wait they have already tried that and it lasted one game.
This squad has so much potential but as you say we always find new ways in which to fail.
Once a Gooner, Always a Gooner but at present a very frustrated Gooner
I was disgusted with the challenge at the time as we’ve seen the impacts of overzealous (I’m being polite) challenges have had on our players. For the referee not to give a free kick illustrates incompetence of the highest order. If the roles were reversed I’m sure AW would’ve seen everything and condemned their player for a potential career-ending challenge. Not a time to be a hypocrite and I’m glad arseblog called it as it was.
Think Gabriel was shocking yesterday he is a headless chicken prefer chambers there to be fair , every team that plays us is thinking don’t matter how many chances they have we only need one or two to win the game , the build up is too slow and not clinical enough ozil must be thinking been here 3 years nearly is it time to move on ?
It’s the players in front of Gabriel that you have to look at too.
It was collectively poor in every aspect!
I hope this is going to be a season Gabrial is going to forget in a hurry. He has been shambolic in recent games. I hope he will pick himself up quickly like Kotchiene did in his first season in Arsenal shirt.
These kind of challenges are what the FA Cup so exciting. I like to think those challenges are expected in the English game.
Hopefully he doesn’t try that in the Champions League. You only have to look at the Barcelona home game we played when the slightest of touches had them rolling around on the floor like they’d been clothes-lined by Hulk Hogan!
Do you seriously believe a two footed tackle on to a player’s shin makes the FA. cup exciting? The rules are pretty clear. It should’ve been a red card in any league.
It was a dangerous and reckless challenge and I wouldn’t say anything if he had received a red card. I was one of the few people that disagreed with the opinion that Flamini should’ve been sent off against Bournemouth, but I think the two challenges are different. Gabriel jumped into the challenge and Deeney reached the ball first (Gabriel actually blocked the ball after Deeney touched it), whereas Flamini got the ball half a second before the Bournemouth player got anywhere near it, and he went in sideways (even if it was with two feet). I’m not a Flamini lover… Read more »
Gabriel….he’s shit really though, isn’t he?
Isn’t this same Gabriel that hurt Wilshere resulting in him being absent till this day?
Basically Gabriel is not a Premiership class defender, he has made similar mistakes in previous games , getting turned, being out of position and reckless challenges. He is not working out so let him go at the end of the season. And while we are doing that, show Walcott, Wilshere, Flamini, Arteta, Rosicky, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Mertesacker, the door marked “DO ONE” and keep Giroud, Gibbs and Chambers as good back-up players for their current positions, and then seriously get in top quality players, no matter the cost, if the Arsenal are going to make a real tilt at the Premiership.… Read more »
The start to his Arsenal career was quite promising, but his form has dropped alarmingly this season. In fairness all our centre halves have looked substandard and he is probably been affected by the malaise permeating through the whole team. Personally I think the wastefulness of the forwards in front of goal is effecting the confidence of all the players and encouraging opponents, which comes back to last summers inactivity in the transfer window. I am afraid that is entirely the fault of the manager.
Disgusting tackle! Only benefit I give him is, he’s still a bit raw. Looked crazy at the time, but the referees lack of response made me think it must of just been full blooded. Love his zeal, but must be much more cautious going forward. Still not much comment on the time wasting, rotational fouling or the lack of yet another penalty. Bah! There’s a fine line, but at the moment were to far over on the nice side.
He’s not raw. He’s 25 years old having played over 100 games in Brazil and Spain prior to joining us.
He’s a hot head liability who is not good enough for Arsenal FC.
The problem is obvious guys. The players have recently had their vaginas waxed and are still sore.
In all honesty they just need to man up. Yes the stadium atmosphere can be toxic (seriously, we as fans need to sort it out). But when players don’t show any desire to close down, track back or put any effort into performing for the team it is disgusting.
We need a leader in midfield. And by that I don’t mean someone small and technically brilliant. I mean someone big, strong and technically sound.
Like who? Pogba wouldn’t come to us. We have to make the top four or nobody decent will come … play the “B” team v Barca and rest top XI for Everton. You know I’m right, Arsene. And get Winston Reid in as I suggested four years ago fuck it … even if he is injured at the mo. Hope Nacho and Bellerin are ready for a lot of miles v Barca. I woke up in NZ yesterday morning at 4am having a nightmare that we lost to Watford and my trip to Wembley was now mounted. C’mon Leicester …… Read more »
*munted (as in cunted or ruined)
He’s lacking understanding with his teammates and he needs to be more of his surroundings. This is one of those things that may get better over time. To be fair to him, he hadn’t been getting much time until fairly recently. And by much time I mean getting a good run of consistent gametime
Gabriel always looks like a nervous wreck and scared, when you play for a top tier team you need a coolness about you, composure that he doesn’t seem to posses, I’m not going to mix words I don’t like him, we should have signed a defender in the summer before he came and that defender should of been someone better to start taking over Mertesacker slowly.