Marco Silva admits Gabriel Magalhaes is ‘impossible to stop’ from set-pieces after Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over Fulham on Saturday night.
Mikel Arteta’s side delivered another solid defensive display, while Leandro Trossard’s goal in the 58th minute was enough to secure the win at Craven Cottage.
Arsenal’s goal once again came from a corner as Gabriel’s flick at the near post was met by Trossard at the back post, who kneed the ball over the line from close range.
Gabriel’s assist was his 20th goal involvement since joining Arsenal in 2020 and Silva says struggling to contain the Brazilian defender at set-pieces is a struggle.
‘When you lose a game, it is always a disappointing one. They were at a very good level,’ Silva told BBC’s Match of the Day.
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‘We did create chances to score before Arsenal. They were more on that than on ourselves. We knew it was not going to be easy, a tough team to play against but I think we kept them away from big chances in the game.
‘After the goal, we did react and started to play more in our way again.
‘Gabriel jumps so high, it’s impossible to stop him. It’s very difficult to control.
‘The way we tried to block his run, most of the game, we did it very well. We were too open and left the path for Gabriel. We didn’t want him to run in that part. Any flick is very difficult to control at the back post.’
In his post-match press conference, Silva added: ‘It’s frustrating, okay, it’s hard to stop, offensive set-pieces is not just about one, two, three players, it’s about the takers, they are lucky because they have very good takers too.
‘It’s a hard challenge for you, when Arsenal face other teams it’s a hard challenge for them, I think it’s on both situations, not just the teams they play against.
‘I think 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 game we were well prepared for that moment but this is the type of game where you have to keep the focus for 90, 95 minutes, most of the time we did a very good job, in one moment we let him [Gabriel] go with power, the way he jumped was very difficult to control, even when the flick comes in the front post it’s far more difficult to control in the far post.’
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