We've been crying out for it since before the start of the season. After knowing we needed at least one more central defender and Arsenal doing nothing to address it in the summer transfer window, all hopes were pinned on us making a signing in January. Knowing how this club has operated in the past, there was a large part of me that wasn't sure we would even do that.
Then, lo and behold, stories started to emerge about Arsenal looking to sign Gabriel Paulista, a Brazilian center back for Villarreal. Again, the cynical side of me thought it sounded almost too good to be true; surely, we would somehow mess this up and if we did bring in anybody, undoubtedly at the last possible minute of transfer deadline day, they would be an equivalent of the Kim Källström signing last January (already injured, slightly washed up, etc...).
As it stands though, we are on the verge of completing his signing now that he has been granted a work permit. All that remains is for Gabriel to pass a physical, which reportedly took place earlier this afternoon, and Arsenal should be announcing the deal soon. Although I still wish we could have identified a target sooner than this, I am extremely pleased with the job the club has done in making this signing.
This is actually an extraordinary signing, compared to most of our transfer business over the past decade or so. That we were able to identify a target and successfully complete the signing with time left to spare in the transfer window is much different than how many of our previous deals have worked. I also like the fact that Gabriel is just on the cusp of entering his prime (much like Danny Welbeck) and is not simply coming here to be a backup. Our first choice defensive pairing is still Mertesacker and Koscielny, but we were going to have to address the need for more center backs at some point as they are 30 and 29 years old, respectively.
Gabriel's signing has also drawn a lot of comparisons to that of Koscielny, for several reasons. In the small amount of video I've seen of him, all from admittedly dodgy YouTube compilations, his playing style has looked extremely similar to the Frenchman's. At 24 years old, Gabriel is also the same age Koscielny was when he joined us from Lorient and was pretty much equally as unheralded and unknown. Those in the know have given him very good reviews, though, and he has been a part of a very airtight defense in La Liga with Villarreal this year. So hats off to the Arsenal for making a very important signing in a time of need, which is not easy for any club to do. Well, except for those clubs for which money isn't an object, but for any real football club, it is.
It's also amazing that we were able to get around the work permit issue, which has been a major hurdle for us in the past. One such player who experienced those issues, Joel Campbell, will actually be heading the other way in exchange for Gabriel on loan for the rest of the season. Whether or not that spells the end for his time at Arsenal remains to be seen, but it certainly does look that way. I'm just glad the club gave him a chance to see what he could do in our team, albeit a very limited one. I've seen Campbell play a few times for Costa Rica and I saw the game he scored in against Manchester United in the Champions League last year, there was just little-to-no room to see him getting into the team ahead of the players we already have. But after the long, drawn out chase for his signature, only for his work permit to get rejected and having to send him on loan after loan after loan, at least we tried to see if it could work out or not. I wish him all the best at Villarreal and the Spanish league will likely end up suiting his style a lot better than England.
This past week really couldn't have gone any better. Our trip to Manchester City resulted in a famous victory for the Gunners, possibly a paradigm-shifting one, and everybody in the media had to talk about how great we were for days on end. Then, this FA Cup round saw Man U forced into a replay by the lowest-ranked team left in the tournament, Chelsea lost 4-2 after being up 2-0 at home against Bradford, Spurs gave up two goals at the death to lose 2-1 and Man City lost 2-0 to second division Middlesbrough. We followed that with a 3-2 win over Brighton, which sees us move on to the 5th round of the FA Cup and gives us our fourth win in a row, which is the first time we've done that all season. In the next round, we face a home match against the Middlesbrough team that knocked City out.
Plus, Theo and Özil scored their first goals after their injury spells and Tomas Rosicky turned in a masterful performance, notching a goal and an assist. So all in all, things are looking up in a major way for us. The challenge will be to build off of this positivity and try to make this season a real success.
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