Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta’s treatment of defender Gabriel Magalhaes is becoming more and more surprising now. He has been dropped from the starting 11 by Arteta.
Journalist Charles Watts was speaking about the £27m Brazilian Gabriel. This is after another unexplained absence.
After back-to-back Premier League wins, Arsenal were brought back down to Earth by Fulham last weekend.
Mikel Arteta made several changes from their 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. This is with Leandro Trossard brought in for Eddie Nketiah.
This comes after Takehiro Tomiyasu’s red card but once again snubbed Gabriel Magalhaes.
What Charles Watt had to say on the Arsenal and Gabriel Magalhaes situation
Watt says:
“I still have this little hunch that the whole Gabriel [Magalhaes] thing that there’s more to it.“There was no indication that this was going to happen during pre-season.
“I mean Gabriel didn’t do anything wrong in the Community Shield and that’s why it just makes me think that there’s potential something a little bit more going on when it comes to Gabriel.
“We know about the interest from Saudi Arabia and all that and Mikel [Arteta] has insistent that it’s not and it’s purely tactical.“If it was tactical it’s surely something that would have been worked on during pre-season a lot more than it was.
“I’m really, really surprised by it. It wasn’t something that I was expecting when the season got underway.”
Watts has admitted that Arteta’s treatment of Gabriel is very surprising. This is especially considering nothing Arsenal did in pre-season suggested this change was coming this season.
There’s plenty of speculation suggesting that Gabriel could move. This is on in the final days of the transfer window.
Although Arteta has suggested that’s not the case. It is hard to identify another explanation for his omission. Arsenal are looking to go 1 step further than last season.
