Arsenal continued to assert their dominance back on the Premier League after a slight wobble with a commanding 1-0 victory against Leicester. The Gunners have been leaking goals as of late, conceding six in their last three, but they returned to their defensive best at King Power Stadium against a team who beat their north London rivals Tottenham 4-1 just a few weeks ago.
Mikel Arteta made a significant decision in attack for the clash, opting to drop Eddie Nketiah to the bench in favour of Leandro Trossard. That move appeared to have worked perfectly within the first half hour as Trossard thought he had scored his second goal for the club since his January move, rifling home a loose ball from a corner.
However, VAR intervened a disallowed the goal after it became clear Ben White had prevented Danny Ward from getting a firm punch on the corner by holding his arm. The Belgian was able to contribute to a legal goal in the second half as he slid Gabriel Martinelli in behind the Leicester defence, with the Brazilian finishing expertly.
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With Arteta vindicated in his decision, much of the talk after the game was about the Arsenal attack. However, the defensive resilience shown in Leicester was clearly on display, with the league leaders keeping their first clean sheet since the North London Derby win over Tottenham in mid-January.
Asked about the importance of a clean sheet after some recent sloppy goals being conceded, Arteta said: "Yeah, with set plays, and some sloppy goals with individual errors which are part of football.
"But the fact that we are not conceding goals and giving away chances is really important if you want to be constantly winning matches."
Their defensive display did not go completely unnoticed among the mainstream media with the centre back pairing of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes praised, with a major compliment thrown the way of the latter.
Writing for the Times, Tony Cascarino said: "In all the excitement about William Saliba’s performances for Arsenal this season, I think people have not given enough credit to his central defensive partner Gabriel.
"The Brazilian is the only outfield player to have played every minute of Arsenal’s league matches so far and I think he has thrived alongside Saliba.
"The task of being the senior partner to a guy who is an outstanding talent but is only 21 has really brought a new maturity to Gabriel’s game. The way Arsenal play, swarming forward to smother opponents, means the defenders often have to defend big areas when opponents do get past their press.
"But Gabriel and Saliba have been great at this, which is especially impressive given centre-halves usually reach their peak later in their careers; they are already the best duo in the league."
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