Mikel Arteta says Brazilian centre-back Gabriel Magalhães has ‘many qualities’ and will help Arsenal to improve at the back.
The Gunners have paid around €30 million for the 22-year-old after he impressed for Lille over the last 18 months.
We had to beat off stiff opposition to get our man with Napoli, Everton and Manchester United all said to have made contact with his representatives.
Gabriel, who will wear the number six shirt, becomes the fourth Brazilian in the first team squad and, when he comes out of quarantine, will challenge for a starting place with fellow new boy William Saliba, who returned to the club this summer after another season in Ligue 1 with Saint-Etienne.
Having spent big money on the duo, the football world will be keeping close tabs on their progress in the coming months.
Pleased to get a second deal of the summer over the line, Mikel Arteta said: “We welcome Gabriel to Arsenal. He has many qualities which will make us stronger as a defensive unit and as a team.
“He has proved with Lille that he is a defender with many outstanding attributes and we are looking forward to watching him grow as an Arsenal player.”
Technical director Edu also revealed that the club had been tracking the youngster for a while.
“We are delighted to have signed Gabriel,” he told Arsenal.com. “He is a player we have been studying for a while and he was in demand from many clubs, so we are proud to have agreed and completed this transfer with Lille and the player.
“Gabriel is a player of high quality and Mikel and his coaches are looking forward to integrating him into the club.”
We wanted new defenders, we have got new defenders. I’m really excited for the new season, both because of signings, but more because of Arteta.
We did but more importantly, we wanted QUALITY defenders (goodness knows we’ve purchased some very average ones – putting it politely – over the past five years or so). It looks like, finally, we’ve turned that corner and are beginning to bring in quality over quantity (particularly with centre-backs) more recently. It’s about time, but let’s celebrate the change.
Yeah, it’s been a while since we have had a stable CB pairing, look forward to the partnership developing between Saliba and Gabriel.
Lets see how things go. I kinda imagine their introduction will be quite gradual. Maybe Saliba will get in first with Holding going out, and then Gabriel to the left to free up Tierney. Luiz the experienced and rational *cough cough* head in the middle organising.
Luiz has been solid when in a front 3, to be fair.
Yeah but we need him solid at the back instead.
Not you NaanBread
And AMN and Saka covering any other position we need for any formation possible.
A great problem to have!
“Top, top players” – Arsene Wenger.
Gabriel already wins the best teeth in the club award
Dude looks like a rapper!
Chris Brown is a rapper technically right?
Firmino can jog on now.
Brazilian dentistry has come a long way since the days of Ronaldinho.
Brilliant announcement video! You can see how important David Luiz is in that dressing room. That defense is now coming together.
Welcome to the family.
Anyone else feels he has very bright teeth like Firminho
Maybe something to do with the dna of new generation of Brazilian footballers
Our Brazilian contingent will give our dressing room a samba beat! Welcome, son ??
Those are an unfeasibly bright set of gnashers. Let’s hope his play dazzles to the same degree…
I’ll get my coat…
Bon arrive, Gabriel
Bon chance Gabriel. So happy you chose the Gunners!!
We had to beat off stiff opposition… hehe
I like it when we beat off the stiff opposition
I’m delighted too!
Welcome to Arsenal!!!
I like in the announcement stunt, the two premier league experienced players try and correct him from saying Gooners to Gunners.
we dont mind, I just wished they’d called him a week ago!
I just wanted to echo the comment below. I came here to say you can now see why Luiz was kept. Articulate, confident and relaxed. We have missed leaders in the dressing room and he ticks all the boxes. Weird his on the pitch performances don’t match his maturity, but he is not going to change now !
What a signing!
We now have 3 fresh legs at defense
Pablo Mari
William Saliba
Gabriel Magalhaheas
Be Excited Gooners?⚪
Can’t wait to see how Arteta organises our defence, I reckon he’ll turn 30m centre half’s into 60m players.
Gabriel signs for arsenal… Dreams can come true
Look at me babe
“We had to beat off stiff…. opposition”
Whatever it takes to get the signing over the line, I guess.
Yes, I’m very immature.
Can Arseblog make a defender article? Who will start and which tactic will be used? I believe Arteta will continue going for a back 3. I reckon David Luiz will play most of the games in a back 3. Who will be the other two? We all love KT and AMN. Where will they play in all this? Then we have our two beloved new guys (Saliba and Gabriel), Is the plan to shift tactic back to a back 4 with these two as main center backs? And David luiz as cover? What about Pablo Mari? I struggle to see… Read more »
Don’t expect us to start with a Gabriel/Saliba partnership. I think that one is for the future and cup games. For PL at the start it might be Luiz on the right and Gabriel on the left. When Mari is fit we might see him with Luiz. In Europa is where we are likely to see Saliba and Mari or Gabriel depending on who’s in the starting 11 in the PL..
We’re turning Brazilian and not necessarily a bad thing. Martinelli, Willian, Luiz, and Magalhes… Two prob won’t be around for too much longer but hopefully all this also translates to better retention of the ball and a bit more creativity regardless of positions. We need to up our technical quotient IMO with many clubs adding like Chelsea and Manure outstanding players…. Even clubs around us Wolves Leicester have played a bit of catch up with on ball ability. It has been evident for a while now that our advantages in this department have been slowly eroded with better share of… Read more »
So, purely looking at the stats above, David Luiz is the worst? Gabriel to partner Mustafi so it seems 😉
I’ll tell you what, if all else fails, he’ll be able to blind the likes of Vardy, Ings, Sterling and all the rest by flashing those teeth.
Martin Tyler: “And as Kane goes down again, covering his eyes, I think that John Moss has had enough and is now going to go over to Gabriel and warn him about smiling at the opposition….”