18 April 2023 , 10:07
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Rio Ferdinand has called out Arsenal defender Gabriel after his side's collapse at West Ham - labelling the defender "mad" and 'wild".
The Brazilian was part of a backline that allowed the Hammers back into the contest at the London Stadium as the Premier League leaders surrendered another 2-0 lead, meaning Manchester City closed in. West Ham were handed a lifeline from the spot with Gabriel committing the foul.
He dived in which left the referee with no choice. The former Lille man has a reputation for being erratic at times, but has formed a strong partnership with William Saliba. Now though, with the Frenchman absent through injury, Gabriel has looked less assured and Ferdinand reckons Mikel Arteta may be thinking twice about whether he should be a mainstay in his Gunners defence.
He said on Vibe With Five : "I thought they [ Arsenal ] let themselves down. They had the game in a stranglehold, they had West Ham where they wanted them, going into half time 2-0 up, you coast that game. But rash… and I’ve said this about Gabriel a few times. He’s rash, he makes mad, wild decisions.
"As a defender you’ve got to be calm. There’s no need for him to do what he did. It was a rush of blood, he needs to eradicate that, get that out of his game quick. As a manager you don’t want to see that. Because those types of things ruin the head too many times, it starts becoming part of their make-up, and you’re going, ‘hold on, can I rely on this guy?’.
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"I think he’s had a fabulous season, Gabriel. But those types of decisions can be very costly, he’s in the run-in now. That will hurt, the way they dropped points."
Gabriel made a costly error against West HamArsenal's backline has several other absentees with Olkesandr Zinchenko also missing. Their lack of squad depth has long been cited as an issue with Rob Holding fill in currently whilst January signing Jakub Kiwior is also an option.
Dropping two points against a team who are fighting the drop was not well received by Arteta however, who questioned the team's game management. Bukayo Saka missed a spot kick to put them 3-1 up, but if was their defending that frustrated the Spaniard.
He said: "If you don’t defend your box the way you should, with the two goals we conceded, you have to do many things much better for longer periods in the match. There was another moment, where you can go 3-1 up after 50 minutes, and the game is probably over… then two minutes later, you concede a goal. But this is part of football. My worry is after 2-0, we made that huge mistake and didn’t understand what the game required in that moment."