Arsenal icon Kevin Campbell has claimed that Gabriel Magalhaes, rather than William Saliba, is the “glue” that holds the Gunners squad together.
The Arsenal cult hero, speaking on Highbury Squad, reckons Saliba is the “Rolls-Royce” of the Gunners setup.
Campbell spoke of how Gabriel can handle everything on the left-hand side of defence when Oleksandr Zinchenko goes inside.
At the start of the season, when Gabriel was out of the Arsenal starting XI, Mikel Arteta shuffled his back four, which included Thomas Partey playing at right-back.
According to Campbell, this shows how much things had to be changed in the absence of the Brazilian.
“But also, he [Gabriel] allows and this is why I believe, he was kind of rested a bit at the start of the season, he allows Zinchenko to join in,” said Campbell.
“What tends to normally happen is if a player leaves the back four and goes up, somebody will go in his spot.
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“They don’t need to. Gabriel will handle all of that left-hand side, centre-back to left-back when Zinchenko goes inside.
“But because he wasn’t there, that’s why you had Saliba on the left-hand side, you had Ben White, and that’s why Thomas Partey played there because Mikel Arteta wanted the inverted one to go from the right-hand side earlier on in the season.
“But as soon as Zinchenko was fit, we still needed to use Gabriel. Gabriel for me is the glue. People think Saliba’s the glue, no, Saliba is the Rolls-Royce.”
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Campbell is spot on. It’s no surprise that, since Gabriel returned to the starting XI, things have been much smoother for Arsenal. He’s a real leader at the back and his partnership with Saliba is superb.
Obviously that’s not to discredit Saliba in any way. The Frenchman has been absolutely outstanding too, keeping even the likes of Erling Haaland quiet on multiple occasions.
Arsenal have struck gold with both players and, with both being young, we should have plenty of years of those two dominating in the Gunners back line.