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Football London
Football London
Sport
Jamie Kemble

'Absolute dominance' - Arsenal fans love what Gabriel Magalhaes did against Olympiacos

Arsenal fans are going nuts over Gabriel Magalhaes' performance against Olympiacos on Thursday night.

The Gunners took a big step towards progressing to the quarter-finals of the Europa League with a 3-1 away win over the Greek champions.

Martin Odegaard put Arsenal ahead with a thunderous strike and Gabriel and Mohamed Elneny completed the job after the Gunners were caught trying to play out from the back again, leading to a Youssef El-Arabi equaliser.

But it wasn't just the Odegaard and Elneny goals that left Arsenal fans impressed with many pointing out just how good a job Gabriel did at the back.

The Brazilian has struggled to nail down a spot in Mikel Arteta's starting XI, starting only 14 Premier League games since his £23.4million summer move from Lille.

But he was handed a start against Olympiacos and the 23-year-old seized his opportunity, getting on the scoresheet with a fine header and racking up some highly impressive statistics.

As pointed out by Squawka, Gabriel had a 100% conversion rate and won all of his aeirel duels. He also managed a 90% pass accuracy, 80 touches, five ball recoveries, three clearances, two tackles, two interceptions a goal and an assist.

That's some going for a centre-back and Arsenal fans have been reacting to his performance on Reddit.

Here's what a selection have had to say.

NonPinkPinkanther - "Thought he was great today. Hopefully will come back into form after the recent dip."

Giannism - "That one tackle he made stopping a counter around the 70th minute just shows how great he is honestly. Hopefully he's back in form."

K1ldn - "Easy motm he looked back to his old self, made correct passing choices, displayed his good passing range. With age he will get less rash and we’ll have a proper player on our hands."

Sand_bags - "I have no idea how he isn’t a nailed on starter. He’s the only CB we have who has all the attributes to be a top, top Central defender. He’s crazy athletic, huge and is pretty technical."

ABWarriorG - "I love his absolute dominance in the air. He never loses a duel. He's a freak athlete who'll only get better with experience."

ChiefArsenalScout - "He is by far our most talented defender when it comes to actually defending. He’ll be world class before too long."

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