The one thing teams are trying to do to stop Gabriel Magalhaes isn’t working as Troy Deeney praises Arsenal defender

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Gabriel Magalhaes continues to impress with his performances for Arsenal this season.

The Brazilian has made 23 appearances for the Gunners in the Premier League this season, scoring three goals, providing one assist and keeping eight clean sheets in the process.

Arsenal beat Leicester 2-0 at the King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon to keep pace with league leaders Liverpool, and Gabriel produced another dominant display for Mikel Arteta’s team.

While Mikel Merino and Ethan Nwaneri stole the headlines for their respective performances, pundit Troy Deeney has praised the Arsenal centre-back for his role in the North Londoners’ victory in the East Midlands.

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Troy Deeney praises Gabriel Magalhaes for performance in Leicester v Arsenal

Arsenal struggled for large periods against Leicester, with their makeshift attack failing to create many clear-cut opportunities in front of goal.

However, the Gunners’ defence remained as resolute as ever, protecting David Raya’s goal from facing any meaningful shots.

Gabriel was at the heart of this stern defensive unit, commanding the Arsenal back-four with his typical authority.

Naming the former Lille man in his team of the week, former Watford striker Deeney praised the player, while also identifying what teams are doing to stop him threatening from Arsenal’s set-pieces.

Speaking on John Stones and Gabriel for the BBC, he said: “Both needed to have big performances for their teams in terms of keeping on with what they’re trying to do.

“Arsenal are trying to win the league and Man City are trying to close the gap and stop this awful run, but with Stones back in the last couple of games they have looked miles better.

“Gabriel is now getting marked ridiculously closely from set pieces, but is still able to get away and cause trouble, but defensively he was very good as well.”

Gabriel has been mooted as a potential forward option as Arsenal struggle with injuries in that department, although based on his showing at the King Power Stadium, you wouldn’t want to remove him from Arteta’s side’s back four.

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Arsenal’s set-piece threat has dropped off

While Gabriel still looks a threat from corners despite the opposition’s meticulous focus on him, Arsenal’s general threat level from set-pieces has fallen off significantly in recent matches.

The Gunners haven’t scored from a set-piece in each of their last seven matches in all competitions, since the North London Derby in mid-January.

Bukayo Saka has been absent for these games, which is evidently hindering Arsenal from dead-ball scenarios, as they’ve lost their primary corner taker from the right-hand side.

However, it’s also likely that teams have somewhat figured out what Arsenal are doing from these situations.

It’s up to Nicolas Jover to innovate and come up with new dangerous set-piece ideas, and he’d have had plenty of time on the training pitch over the last two weeks to do so.