Marco Silva admits Gabriel Magalhaes is ‘inconceivable to stop’ from set-pieces after Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over Fulham on Saturday night.
Mikel Arteta’s side delivered one other solid defensive display, while Leandro Trossard’s goal within the 58th minute was enough to secure the win at Craven Cottage.
Arsenal’s goal once more got here from a corner as Gabriel’s flick on the near post was met by Trossard on the back post, who kneed the ball over the road from close range.
Gabriel’s assist was his twentieth goal involvement since joining Arsenal in 2020 and Silva says struggling to contain the Brazilian defender at set-pieces is a struggle.
‘While you lose a game, it’s at all times a disappointing one. They were at a excellent level,’ Silva told BBC’s Match of the Day.
Get personalised updates on Arsenal on a regular basis
Get up to search out news in your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Enroll to our newsletter after which select your team within the link we’ll send you so we are able to get football news tailored to you.
‘We did create possibilities to attain before Arsenal. They were more on that than on ourselves. We knew it was not going to be easy, a tricky team to play against but I feel we kept them away from big possibilities in the sport.
‘After the goal, we did react and commenced to play more in our way again.
‘Gabriel jumps so high, it’s inconceivable to stop him. It’s very difficult to manage.
‘The best way we tried to dam his run, a lot of the game, we did it thoroughly. We were too open and left the trail for Gabriel. We didn’t want him to run in that part. Any flick could be very difficult to manage on the back post.’
In his post-match press conference, Silva added: ‘It’s frustrating, okay, it’s hard to stop, offensive set-pieces just isn’t nearly one, two, three players, it’s concerning the takers, they’re lucky because they’ve excellent takers too.
‘It’s a tough challenge for you, when Arsenal face other teams it’s a tough challenge for them, I feel it’s on each situations, not only the teams they play against.
‘I feel they’ve scored 60 per cent of their goals from set-pieces, it shows their power in that moment.
‘The frustration for us is that we showed throughout the sport we were well prepared for that moment but that is the style of game where you could have to maintain the main target for 90, 95 minutes, more often than not we did a excellent job, in a single moment we let him [Gabriel] go along with power, the best way he jumped was very difficult to manage, even when the flick is available in the front post it’s far harder to manage within the far post.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the most recent news on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
MORE: Jean-Philippe Mateta ‘very frustrated and upset’ despite Premier League hat-trick
MORE: Nottingham Forest approach Roberto Mancini after Evangelos Marinakis criticism
MORE: Enzo Maresca reveals Enzo Fernandez injury concern after Chelsea beat Nottingham Forest