Arsenal journalist Charles Watts has been sharing his praise for Gunners defender Gabriel and his performance during the north London club’s recent 1-0 defeat against Olympiacos in the Europa League.
This comes after Watts recently uploaded a video onto his YouTube channel where he reflected on the defeat that ultimately saw Mikel Arteta’s side move through to the next round of the competition.
On the subject of Gabriel, who played through the entire game against the Greek side, Watts had this to say about his performance in the match.
He said: “Gabriel is going to get my man of the match at centre-back – I thought he had a decent night’s work.
“Gabriel again, he’s certainly showing signs of being back towards his best at the moment, which is a boost.”
Arsenal signed Gabriel back in the previous summer transfer window from French club LOSC Lille for a fee of £23.4 million.
Since then, the 23-year-old, who is currently valued at £22.5 million, has made 24 appearances for Arsenal across all competitions in which he has managed to score three goals and provide one assist in the process (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Charles Watts’ assessment of Gabriel and his performance against Olympiacos…
With only David Luiz having a higher match rating than Gabriel out of the Arsenal players that played the full game against Olympiacos, it’s easy to see why Watts was so happy with Gabriel’s display against the Greek champions.
Were you impressed by Gabriel's performance against Olympiacos?
Yes
No
Also, the fact that Gabriel made more clearances (8) than any other Arsenal player on the night just goes to show how strong he was defensively for the club, despite the disappointing result.
Moving forward, Watts and the rest of the Arsenal fans will undoubtedly be hoping that Gabriel can keep up this level of performance every time he gets the opportunity to play for the team.