Mikel Arteta says he’s going to give more chances to 25-year-old Arsenal player

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has dismissed claims that Gabriel Magalhaes will be sold by claiming he will play much more in the coming weeks.

The 25-year-old Brazilian has started each of the Gunners’ first two games on the bench, which is a shock as he had started 73 consecutive games in the Premier League before that.

Arteta, however, is adamant he will not be sold.

Mikel Arteta says Gabriel Magalhaes will play a lot for Arsenal this season

Ever since Gabriel Magalhaes was benched in the opening weekend of the Premier League, there have been plenty of rumours surrounding his Arsenal future.

Clubs from Saudi Arabia have been linked with a move to sign him, while even Real Madrid are reportedly keen to lure him away from the Emirates.

After Gabriel started last night on the bench, more rumours emerged on social media, but Mikel Arteta made it absolutely clear that he’s going nowhere.

When asked about the rumours, he said, as quoted by Arsenal.com: “Nothing at all, it’s about games that we were expecting, how we were going to defend and attack and what I believe is the best thing.

“He’s played in both games and helped us to win both games for different reasons. He was really good today, he absolutely dominated the box when he came on and he’s going to play a lot of games.

“That’s the decision sometimes.”

TBR View:

This is absolutely the right decision.

Gabriel is a tremendous centre-half. The Brazilian was outstanding for Arsenal last season, and his performances off the bench in the first two games of this campaign were brilliant as well.

Selling Gabriel makes absolutely no sense at all – we expect him to be back in action very soon. We think he’ll start against Fulham on Saturday, with Oleksandr Zinchenko set to return with him.

It will be interesting to see who will drop out to accommodate Gabriel whenever Arteta decides to start him again.