Micah Richards has completely changed his mind on Arsenal player, ‘I wasn’t sure about him’

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Micah Richards was eager to single out one Arsenal player after the win over Crystal Palace.

With George Graham in the stands, Arsenal rolled back the years with a convincing, yet uneventful, 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. 

Oliver Glasner’s side couldn’t match Arsenal when it came down to the nitty-gritty parts of the game, with Eberechi Eze scoring the only goal of the contest.

While Eze earned the spotlight with a sublime goal against his former club, it was Gabriel Magalhaes who was key to the victory yet again.

• READ MORE: Arsenal’s best player became even more obvious in the 57th minute vs Crystal Palace

Micah Richards has changed his mind on Arsenal’s Gabriel Magalhaes

There are few players more influential than Gabriel right now, as the centre-back continues to be a force to be reckoned with in defence and also attack.

Though Gabriel’s quality was known when Arsenal first signed him, he’s at an entirely new level now, which is something Micah Richards spoke about after the Gunners’ win.

Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, Richards admitted that he wasn’t entirely sold on Gabriel when he first arrived in the Premier League.

“Gabriel, what a player he is, and I wasn’t sure about him at the start. I thought he made a few mistakes; it looked a bit clumsy,” the pundit said.

Now that Gabriel is one of the best players in the world, it came as no surprise to hear that Richards’ opinion has changed.

“But now, he’s just turned into an absolute machine. On set pieces, he’s so key, for and against.”

There is no stopping the 27-year-old at the moment, as he continues to lead by example in the Arsenal squad.

Clear to see where Gabriel has improved since joining Arsenal

While discourse is engulfing the player when it comes to set-pieces, it’s not the only area he’s improved since joining Arsenal, as the numbers reveal.

In his final season at LOSC Lille, Gabriel was one of the best-performing centre-backs in Ligue 1, but since his transfer to the Premier League, he’s hit a new level.

Defensively, the Brazilian has sharpened up, losing half of the number of challenges per 90 that he did in the 2019/20 Ligue 1 season, compared to the 2024/25 Premier League season.

The same goes for his increased average of dribblers tackled per 90, which has rocketed from 68.2% to 75.0%.

Gabriel leaves nothing to chance, whether that be defensively or when it comes to playing passes.

Arsenal truly struck gold by landing the defender in 2020, as Gabriel seems to get better week by week.