Gabriel Magalhaes has made quite the impact since joining Arsenal back in the summer. Despite The Gunners struggling to get results, Gabriel has been a positive, scoring two goals and being a solid presence at the back.
The Arsenal faithful have recognised this by voting Gabriel as their Player of the Month for November, gaining 76% of the vote.
This now means the young centre back has won all three of Arsenal's monthly awards for the 2020/2021, highlighting his impact not only in games, but also on his new fanbase.
Shining Light In November
November was definitely one to forget for Arsenal. In spite of their perfect results in the Europa League, in the Premier League however they only managed to gain four points out of a possible twelve, including a heavy 3-0 defeat at home to Aston Vila.
Individually, many of Arsenal's players failed to perform at a high enough standard in the month, but Gabriel on the other hand has been one of the few bright sparks.
Even though the end of the month ended in the way it did, November, usually labelled as a curse month for Arsenal, did start on a bright note, as they clinched their first win at Old Trafford since 2006, in which Gabriel played a vital role to sure up the defence and claim a clean sheet.
Despite Arsenal conceding five goals in the next three games, the Brazilian International still played a role in maintaining some order along the Arsenal back line and even grabbed his 2nd goal for the club against Wolves.
Gabriel was consistent throughout the month and even when the rest of his team mates haven't been up to standard, he has continued to do his job, rarely showing any lapse in concentration, with his sides poor form not affecting his individual performances.
Importance To Team
The award is a testament to the great bargain which Gabriel is turning out to be. At only £22M, he is certainly going to be in with a shout for signing of the season, even this early on.
Mikel Arteta's main mission heading into this season was to tighten up the leaky defence which he had at his disposal.
Gabriel was slotted straight into the starting line up and his influence on the team even gave Arsenal the best defensive record in the league pre-Aston Villa on 7th November and has certainly been the key player in ensuring The Gunners aren't so easy to score against.
Mistakes have decreased throughout the defence, from a number of players, possibly due to Gabriel's positive influence as such a confident player both on the ball from playing out from the back, but also off the ball, when defending.
Set pieces were always a big problem for Arsenal to deal with, with nearly half of their goals last season being conceded via a set piece.
This however has been eradicated so far this season, with not a single one of their goals conceded coming from set pieces. Gabriel has been a presence in the area to stop this from happening.
He has also been a constant in the other end of the pitch, causing problems during corners and even scoring two goals himself, which account for 20% of Arsenal's league goals.
So far Gabriel has been one of very few positives for The Gunners this season and if they can address their problems on other areas of the pitch, while the Brazilian defender continues his great form, then they might just be able to turn their season around.